Of course friends. As already said JP should be a shoo in. Another of your players who I honestly think would have been in with a real shout, had he not missed half of the season is Robbie Burrow. I have not seen as much of him as you lot, but what I have he has looked excellent. I too was surprised Sneyd was taken off early. I did hear yesterday though that the big match had got to him, and that he had not slept all week and that he was sick before the game. Don't know how true this is, but if it is so, it may explain the decision to remove him.

I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking when I first saw him & DM together in the academy that he just wouldn't be big enough to withstand the rigours of superleague.
Boy, how wrong was I?
It's incredible how he gets whacked time & time again but just bounces back up like a rubber ball to tackle virtually anything that runs at him.
He is a legend.
One of the many in our current team.
Such a treat & a privilege to have been there to watch them & revel in their success over the past 10/12 years or so.

Charlie Sheen says "He's also developed into a fine hooker since he's moved to that position after receiving a lot of stick from fans who assummed because he didn't look like a hooker he couldn't be successful there."

Could someone tell me why the player in the middle of the front row is called a HOOKER??? and what a HOOKER should look like??? and what they actually 'hook?'

And I'm not talking about a lady of the night!!!

When he didn't last long in the 2003 CC Final after taking a blow to the head I was thinking it was going to be a common theme for him but barring one or two moments (Anthony Watmough running over him like a train) it's incredible how little time he's missed throughout his career up until the collarbone injury this year. Considering his size arguably the toughest guy in the squad. For all the great tries he's scored and created, my favourite Burrow moment has to be when he squared up to Lauaki, brilliant bottle from the guy.

The issue with him playing "hooker" has been that he doesn't defend in the hooking channel and we effectively sacrifice a tough forward presence which generally is made up for by Sinfield. His play from dummy half suffers because his pass is less than ideal and he has not the stregth to force his way over from dummy half near the line (at least twice on Saturday someone like McShane could have been over from dummy half where Burrow was clobbered and made zero inches). In those respects he dosen't fit the role. The bonus is his ability to brilliantly exploit a retreating defence or poor effort at marker and to play the full 80 minutes by simply switching to a half back role when a reserve hooker like Aiton comes on. When that happens he can roam the field and cause problems anywhere. BMD originally used him off the bench in the dummy half role to exploit tired big forwards at critical moments in the game. I guess with Aiton missing so much time recently he decided to start with Burrow and it was the right choice IMO. We won a lot of collisions and Rob showed how easy he can make the game look when the forwards are on the front foot at the PTB.

As a player over the years he has done it all. MOS in a test series against NZ must be one of the highlights for him, but I will simply never forget the try he scored against Saints in the 2011GF. Unbelievable.

x2 DHM.
Printer-RE squaring up to Luaki did you not see him put Thackery on his arris then deliver a few haymakers when we played Hull?
It was brilliant JT was totally stunned a moment never to forget and imo he is THE TOUGHEST player in the SL era.