I dont know how you can say ward was playing well when he did less than 80 minutes.

Middles is fine. They play down the middle. They defend the middle third. What's wrong with the term. It's no worse than three quarters

Take your point and it makes total sense,but I reckon when your team needs to sign a prop (like ava, peacock, kylie etc) and you sign thompson/king it seems to me that lots of players who are quite different are all being lumped together.

I only use middles because most others do , i do not particularly like the term , but there are no longer 2 props and a loose forward as the loose forward is now nearly always a 3rd prop

Fair point mate. Sorry to be so pedantic. Just a term that really annoys me as per previous reasons...

Funnily enough, the Aussies have started to transition back to having a ball player at 13 with the new rules. Having too many big guys was catching a few teams out last year. Theres even talk of Benji Marshall coming off the bench for Souths and playing 13 on Friday morning. Then you have hybrid guys like Radley and Brown who are the new mould for 13s. They run strong lines but can play too... you know, a bit like the SL had 5+ years ago