Full back:

Tomkins, Hardaker



Wing:

Hall, Briscoe (Cant really pick Charnley at the moment)



Centre:

Watkins, Cudjoe, Reed



Halves:

Sinfield, Widdop, Chase



Hooker:

Mcllorum, Roby



Prop

Graham, G Burgess, Hill, L Burgess, Taylor, Walmsley



Back Row

O'Loughlin, Westwood, Farrell, Ablett, Bateman, Westerman

I was going to ask about him, seems to have gone up a gear when I've seen him lately. Tough, hardworking and a good all round skill set.



From Saints, Lomax is our gem. None of us would swap him for Hardaker.

Our starting front row is a real strength. Amor, Roby and Walmsley.

Walmsley has some silly errors in him, but his go forward is immense.

Roby's starting to look jaded from being flogged for 80 minutes a week, but is still England's best hooker. I'd like to see him interchanged with Clarke - very exciting.

Amor's been a real rock. He's out injured for awhile now, but should be back in good time to stake a decent claim.

Supposed to be picked on form, and not one Cas player in the 24man squad. Aye, alright.



If I were picking a 17 for a match tomorrow. I'd select



Hardaker

Makinson

Watkins

Shenton

Hall

Widdop

Sneyd

Graham

Clark

Peacock

Westwood

Whitehead

O'loughlin



Amor

Huby

Roby

Ablett

Yeah because I think there are better players to pick. A few touchy Cas fans on this thread. Chris Clarkson has been in great form for Leeds so far this season, it doesn't mean I'd pick him for England.

Lunt isn't half the player Daz Clark is!



It's the Daz Clark's, Joe Westermans we need to have in the 24man squads now, get a feel for the environment of an England squad.

Fully agree with you there. For far too long we've persisted with the old guard then thrown up and coming players in at the deep end expecting them to just slot into international rugby league. They need some experience first.

I agree with this, both are gifted players and need to show they can step up.

Deluded one eyed Cas fans - never change. Your a decent team, that doesn't make you a team of internationals.



Two, four and six years ago we had a teams firing like yours but we produced no internationals bar Atkins and rightly so, we were just a good team. Get over yourself.



Clark is the only one I'd look at, your defeating your own argument with Shenton who was given a chance and found wanting and Huby again "s".



Kirmond deserves a chance well ahead of Westerman but hey not a Cas lad so we won't mention him will we.

I don't know how much of Westerman you've seen this season but Kirmond isn't in his league based on recent form. One of the good things Radford has done is get him back in his proper role a of ball playing forward, as a result he is getting his hands on the ball a lot more. Not only is his work rate better than anyone (and I mean anyone) in Superleague, but his link up play has resulted in a lot of tries and chances being created.



Stats aren't everything but let's take a look at a select few:



Carries:

Westerman - 230, Kirmond - 99

Metres:

Westerman - 1355, Kirmond - 648

Tackles:

Westerman - 395, Kirmond - 313

Offloads:

Westerman - 15, Kirmond - 5

Try Assists:

Westerman - 5, Kirmond - 0

Tackle Busts:

Westerman - 34, Kirmond - 13



Their errors, penalties and missed tackles are similar, but given Joe's extra involvement he wins in all these catergories too. This is only half of it, like I've said his strength this year has been his ability to draw in defenders in the middle and link with the backs, this is something he does very well and it's resulted in a lot of tries.



So stop talking rubbish, Kirmond is a good player and always impresses me with his attitude and professionalism, but he's got an awful long way to go to get to Westerman's level.

Kirmonds a decent player but not international standard. He is a hard worker and he hits hard but we have better.



Westerman has always had the potential to be something special, he just never put it together for a long period of time. He has had a good start to the year but needs to put it together for at least one whole season before looking at international caps.

Do you have an indication of games played by the two lads to give these stats some better perspective?

Westerman has played 11. He plays 80 minutes most weeks but he has been brought off early in each of our last 2. Kirmond has played 10, I don't know how many minutes he generally plays.