Phil Clarke asks if Wayne Bennett is the best person to lead the England team in preparation for the 2017 World Cup...
As the Super League season prepares for its launch this week, all eyes have been temporarily distracted from the domestic to the international game.
The decision to appoint the 66-year-old Broncos coach has divided opinion. Is it a step in the right direction or an impulsive decision that hasn't been thought through?
I think it's right firstly to thank Steve McNamara for what he's done over the last nine years, remembering he was an assistant before he was given the job full-time role five years ago.
My memory isn't great and I'd forgotten but the senior management at the RFL had decided that the job of England coach should be a full-time position when they first appointed him. It then seemed as though they 'flipped-flopped' and changed their mind when it quickly became a part-time role.
That seemed like confused thinking and poor leadership to me. It wasn't as if the fixtures had altered or the role been changed.
Proud
McNamara must feel proud having coached England in their recent victory over New Zealand and I'm led to believe that the England camp is now a harmonious one, but I don't think it was a very strong New Zealand squad in 2015.
Still, it was a successful series and it seems a strange time to make a change. The impossible question to answer is this: Have England improved because they've had better coaching, or because they've got better players?
I suppose that it's a combination of both, and McNamara must feel proud about some of that. From what little I know, Steve is a great coach; thorough, diligent and with a great rugby intelligence. However, he's never struck me as the most charismatic coach.
With such limited preparation time - don't forget, Steve spends most of the year in Sydney, although he did watch every game played in Super League and had a couple of mid-season camps - maybe the role of the England coach is to come along and make players feel unbeatable.
Motivation
There is no question about Wayne Bennett's previous success as a coach, although it's worth remembering that he doesn't always win. In 2005 he was the coach of Australia when they lost to New Zealand in the 2005 Tri-Nations Final at Elland Road.
It was the first time in 27 years that the Kangaroos had lost in a final or series, and to make matters worse, the first time they'd been nilled in two decades.
He was an assistant to Stephen Kearney when New Zealand won the World Cup in 2008 and it's possible that he'll play a similar role for England, but I'm unsure who he would assist. I'm fascinated by his motivation to want to coach England at the end of a demanding NRL season.
When will he find the time to watch the players who he will select in his squad in October? I know that a third of an England squad now play in the NRL, but the other two thirds don't. It's not as if he can ask one of his assistants at Brisbane to help him: Stephen Kearney is the New Zealand coach who he'll compete against in the autumn.
I can see the logic in having a different voice after five years. Players are told similar stories and messages from most coaches, and it can freshen things up to hear it from a different viewpoint. But Wayne Bennett will have very little time to influence the team or build any relationships with the players.
I accept that he does have an aura and that alone can sometimes make players play better on its own, but I'm not convinced that it's a step forward. I would have given the job to Brian McDermott or Daryl Powell, they're the best two British coaches at present.
But it still won't stop me cheering for England in this year's Four Nations. Good luck lads.