Tonite's game showed how a good number 9 should play. There were 13.000 witnesses saw how well Lunt went tonite, there are also quite a few on here both raving about lunt/bagging Mcshane! Why have a go at me for doing the same???

It's a lot easier to get good go forward if you've got a dummy half providing quick and accurate service. Lunt did that tonight. From the times I've seen Leeds on Sky this season McShane and Hood have both failed to do this. McShane in particular has looked dreadfully slow both in distribution and movement and Hood looks a lot like a natural athlete learning to play a position.

Hood out on loan to Dews is a great move by Leeds and he'll benefit greatly from it. McShane needs to speed up everything he does otherwise he wont make it as a hooker.

Coincidence or not Lunt showed how it should be done....great distribution. He and Burrow should now be first choice interchange dummy halves on that performance.

Difficult because I would also like to see Hood on that bench every week too.

Either way McShane is now well down the pecking order IMO.

McShane was outstanding against Manly, it would have been hard to fault that performance also. Lunt is a good player, but that effort from he pack tonight was pretty special. When you dominate collisions like we did my mum would look sharp at dummy half.

Lunt's had one good game and McShane - a young player -a few average ones.

The only good option that McShane brings to the party is the odd 40/20. His distribution is slow and his whole play lacks zip. Much is said about him not having enough game time but Lunt showed in one game his class whilst McShane has never managed to show anything more than promise in 30 to 40 appearances since 2009.

Watch his apperances vs Castleford & Bradford both away last season then come back to me.

I did. So McS made a try with a good pass from a PTB against Cas - big deal. He has never given an 80 minute performance like Lunt did in his first game for Leeds and has never shown enough to be rated as anything more than promising. He has sadly failed to show the improvement necessary to make the 9 spot his own and now could be down to 4th choice at Leeds.

Did you see his game v cas away last year?
Did you think he was ordinary v Manly?
Lets also get some perspective here Lunt is 25 and has made the England squad Mcshane in SL terms is still a young lad learning the game and has played a bit part mostly and before you jump in with "because of his form" what did he do wrong not to get picked away at Wigan or after the Manly game when the coach clearly stated he was just "rotating" him with Hood?
Afterall yer posturing over Farrell in yawnion you go and write kid off because someone with more experience has a good debut what next ditch watkins because Ablett has played well at Centre?
I can't wait for your reaction to Lunt when he's poor in cr## team performance wil he get the blame like Macca has?

I just can't ever see mcshane been a regular top performer

3 seasons on the fringes now

Neither had Lunt before Friday. That was the 1st time he'd done 80 mins in his career.

So it was McShane's fault when the pack gets hammered? I haven't seen every game McShane has played, but he did more than "OK" against Manly. His defence, which many have had a go at, was excellent against a far tougher pack than anything he'll face in SL, and he showed a lot of nous at the PTB, freeing Burrow for more of an orthodox scrum half role. What's odd is then dropping him for Hood almost straight after, rather than giving McShane a real run at the role.

If McShane leaves (unlikely for the time being as presumably Lunt is cup-tied) I personally think he has some grounds for complaining that to date he hasn't been given the sort of run he may have deserved and other players have had.

As for Lunt, I'd expect a full international to be able to step in and do a good job from the off. It will be interesting to see how he's viewed when we have the inevitable bad performance with him in the team.

I tend to find we as fans overestimate players on good days ("nobody could have lived with us", "player X is world class"icon_wink.gif, and underestimate them on bad days ("nobody could have lived with them", "player X is useless"icon_wink.gif. The overestimation tends to reach fever pitch with newbies as well.

Apologies - Lunt apparently isn't cup-tied as presumably didn't play for Hudds in the cup.

i maybe wrong but didn't Lunt & Mcshane both make their super league debuts the same year? whilst i think many would agree that macca's had better hookers in front of him, Lunt has had to deal with N.Brown's 'i want half a team of sevens' so its not been a easy walk in the park for him. Paul's biggest issue for mine is his consistency, he very quickly swings from looking a class act to looking like a championship player (sometimes even in the same game), which in a vital position like hooker is never going to win him any brownie points with either the coach or the fans. So whilst yes i agree that there have been some weird team selections around him, like being dropped after manly, you can hardly blame the coach for not trusting him fully and keeping half an eye on what's best for the team not just the player.

as for the centre comment, I'd certainly be weighing up the pros & cons of ablett taking the other centre spot.

agreed. Lunts debut was decent but not world class.McShare played well against Manly but certainly not so well its worth using in a discussion. I do think though that he hasn't had a settled run in the team. you have to ask yourself why.