In fairness, I don't think he was saying replace, just that we should have started with Mcllorum as the interchange hooker. In view of the way the game went, I think he may have a point.

I can see RGs point but if I was the England coach I'd be bricking it trusting MM in such a big game as a WC Semi-Final. Too much of a risk for me in case he did a "Moz"

To echo G1's earlier post, he is simply nowhere near the level of James Roby. Yes he is more aggressive but so what? If that's something your pack is missing you need to take a look at your props and second row.

Some of McIlorum's previous behaviour leaves a bad taste. There's many players out there who hit hard, but don't completely lose control like he does.

In view of how the game went? We lost the game after a penalty for a head high shot, the last thing we needed was a player renowned for doing that

It is great remembering how tough RL was, especially the front row. But McIlorum's brief stints in the WC showed it has only limited effect on a world stage. Roby, Lunt & Clarke are simply miles apart with the ball.

Like has been said already, he's one of those players that every other team's fans love to hate.

Would I have him at Leeds? Don't know. I really don't know if he'd fit in with the mentality that the Leeds players have. I can see he gives everything when he plays (a little too much sometimes) but I'm not sure if he has the musketeer attitude that Leeds has been built on.

A good individual player without a doubt but I'd much sooner have Lunt or Clark as I think they'd fit the Leeds ethos much better.

I would more than happy to have him in a rhinos jersey,lets face it he was the main reason Wigan turned us other last Saturday . Obviously there is a dark side of his game which would need curbing. Morley was superb for us and the wire,but as we all know he had his red mist moments.
Strangely enough or not I think wane encourages his darker side,presumably on the basis he intimidates a fair amount of the opposition .
As for Bateman ,he is a cheap shot merchant without any obvious talents.

I think even Stevie Wonder could see that McIlorum's antics & Crosby flattening McGuire from behind were all part of Wane's plan to upset Leeds. All credit to them, it worked.

Is he good enough though to take the rough with the smooth. Whilst he played great on Saturday he also made his teammates play for 10 minutes a man down, this period not only cost them a try but you could see the Wigan side were seriously gassed towards the end and almost lost if not for a unclean take by Moon.

And whilst he was key in winning them the 2013 GF. In 2012 he got himself a 3 match ban for the playoffs for a needless high shot on Laffranchi. Do Leeds win at the DW 13-12 if McIlorum plays hooker and O'Loughlin reverts to his preferred Loose position? Him committing a brain fart might well be the reason they aren't Back-to-Back champions ATM.

Great player, can take the physical side a bit to far sometimes (not unlike lots of other players)

Personally I think Roby, Lunt and Clarke are slightly better than MM

You are right about that Printer. MMc has been sent off 3 times against Saints now. I argued at the time that it cost us the game against Leeds as we were without him and Sam Tomkins and lost by 1 point. I was told in no unceretain terms on here that it had no relevance to the outcome and that Leeds won because they were a champion team - fair enough.

I suppose that with these players you take the rough with the smooth. He did seem to improve his discipline last season. However the high shot at Cas in March got him a deserved ban. I do think that there was nothing in the shot on Peacock on Saturday and that it was made to look worse by the reaction of the Leeds players.

It was just a high shot. What got him in trouble at the time was the timing of it. The previous incident had got a bit tasty and he had personally just been spoken to and told to go and calm his team down. He was then dumb enough to put a high shot on 3 yards from the ref in the very next incident. I suspect Peacock picked him out on suspicion that he might be unable to control himself in that moment.

That, in my opinion, was what earned him 10 minutes "cooling off time." Rightly so. Any call for any additional punishment or the Sky team's ranting that it should have been a red card were totally over the top.

He cost his team for 10 minutes, I'd say he more than made up for it in the other 70.

Regarding the Peacock one I agree it wasn't too bad, the main problem was probably doing it 10 secs after the ref had him over for a talking to. Had it been any other Wigan player they might not have been binned. Ref probably did right on this occasion, had McIlorum/Bailey/Bateman stayed on then I reckon something else would've kicked off within minutes.

It might also be an example of past actions playing a part in the ref's thinking. "Just spoke to him, he's got previous, he still went charging in.....he needs to cool down for 10."

Fair post.

Agreed.