Lowes looks to break into inner circle

Great Britain's brains trust will sit down tonight and select their 19 players for their trip to Australia next month – and there is little scope for them to come up with many surprises.

David Waite and his assistants, Brian Noble and Graham Steadman, will have the recent Origin Series form fresh in their minds, although in most cases that will only have confirmed what they already knew – namely, that Britain are much stronger in some positions than others.

Full-back is a case in point. Either Kris Radlinski or Paul Wellens would be a reassuring face in the No 1 jersey; Radlinski just about deserves to retain it, but Wellens will play in the three-quarters. The other automatic choices in the backline are Keith Senior and – despite him being used at full-back and stand-off by Yorkshire – Leon Pryce.

The other centre slot is a choice between the defensive solidity of Gary Connolly, who has just recovered from knee surgery, and the agility and potential of Martin Gleeson or Paul Johnson. Connolly is the most likely to start against Australia.

Paul Sculthorpe, Kevin Sinfield and Andy Farrell will divvy up stand-off and two back-row positions between them. Sinfield has done enough for Leeds and Yorkshire to look the logical choice at six; if there is to be back-up, then Danny Orr might have done sufficient in the second half at Headingley to get the trip.

The second match of the series also saw Paul Deacon get his nose in front of Ryan Sheridan at scrum-half – although neither brings to the party what a fit Sean Long could.

The starting front row picks itself – the Lancashire combination of Terry O'Connor, Terry Newton and Barrie McDermott – but two or three other props will be needed. Stuart Fielden will be one of them, if fit, with Nick Fozzard perhaps a touch ahead of Paul King, with David Mills further down the pecking order.

The rest of the party should be completed by Chris Joynt and Karl Pratt, who had an outstanding second half at Headingley and whose versatility could allow him to cover wing, both half-back positions and hooker, plus possibly one other.

That could be Keiron Cunningham, still recovering from a broken hand, but sufficiently important to Great Britain for Waite to throw him straight on to the plane the following morning, if he gets through a comeback game at Hull on 4 July. The Great Britain coach is more likely to take that particular gamble than the equivalent one with Long, who is getting over a similar injury.

If there is to be a player, other than Connolly, from outside the county sides getting a call tomorrow morning, before the squad is announced officially, it could be the Bradford hooker, James Lowes. He captained Yorkshire last season but missed the Ashes series; there are plenty of good younger hookers, but none with his wiliness near the try-line and that could be enough to earn him one last fling.