2012 NRL All Stars

After months of voting the NRL All Stars team for the upcoming Harvey Norman Rugby League All Stars match has finally been announced. Here is the full squad of 20 as announced by Wayne Bennett today, a few surprises in this one!

Update: Following the withdrawal of Ben Hornby, Cameron Smith and Tony Williams there are a number of changes to the squad. Nathan Fien, Aaron Payne and Anthony Watmough have been drafted in as replacements!

NRL All Stars – Starting Side:
Josh Dugan (Canberra Raiders)
Jason Nightingale (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Jack Reed (Brisbane Broncos)
Michael Jennings (Penrith Panthers)
Manu Vatuvei (Warriors)
Benji Marshall – Captain (Wests Tigers)
Cooper Cronk (Melbourne Storm)
Kade Snowden (Newcastle Knights)
Aaron Payne (North Queensland Cowboys)
Luke Bailey (Gold Coast Titans)
Nathan Hindmarsh (Parramatta Eels)
David Taylor (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Paul Gallen (Cronulla Sharks)

Interchange:
Adam Blair (Wests Tigers)
Frank Pritchard (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs)
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Sydney Roosters)
Anthony Watmough (Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles)
Brent Tate (North Queensland Cowboys)

Coach’s Selections:
Luke Lewis (Penrith Panthers)
Nathan Fien (St George Illawarra Dragons)

The automatic selections for the NRL All Stars squad were Cameron Smith and Benji Marshall as respective captains of the National teams. Other than those two, 16 players, 1 from each NRL side, were chosen by the public. 2 additional players were chosen as “coaches selections”. 

The real selection surpirse among the 20 man squad is Ben Hornby. Obviously Bennett still has a soft spot for his former captain as I could think of a host of other players I would have selected ahead of him.

Luke Lewis got the other “coaches selection” spot, a quality player who finished runner up to Michael Jennings in the public vote. He’ll bring a wealth of representative experience to the squad and I think that was a great selection.

Paul Gallen led the voting for the NRL All Stars squad, garnering over 8,000 votes of the total of just over 30,000 votes. Surprisingly he finished just 333 votes ahead of Cooper Cronk with Slater pulling out due to injury before voting began.

Dallas Johnson and Brent Tate went down to the wire for the last Cowboys spot in the side. Tate won out in the end by just 2 votes and that’s great news for a player that has been blighted by injuries throughout his career.

The NRL All Stars have named a strong looking squad to take on the Indigenous All Stars. The Rugby League All Stars match will be played on February 4 at Skilled Park.

2012 Indigenous All Stars Squad

Let us know your thoughts on both sides in the comments section and any thoughts you may have on the game as well!

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