We'll just have to disagree...but why do you state BJB would have had to "hang around waiting for injuries" ??? Who do you think was immune from de-selection in his favour ??
A waste of a year IMO. (He could have played centre at least if not FB...allowing Delaney to have competed effectively for a second row spot. Another waste of [ihis [/iyear playing centre).

Suprisingly, i agree with you. Smith was handy to have on the bench, whether it be to fill in at FB, Wing or Centre.

I thought he did what was asked of him. Nothing more or less.

Bjb is and always was a FB who could maybe cover wing or centre and when he played Wing he did'nt look overly comfortable.
Now at the start of last year Webb was 1st choice FB and the wingers were Donald and Hall with Watkins the preferred choice to cover the back 3 or either centre and with Ablett as 2nd back up.
Before the ridiculous injuries kicked in the chance arose for Bjb to get a full season of SL in at a club where he'd find it easier to gain a spot in the 13/17 so it was a "no brainer" he went did well gained experience at both FB and centre.
Now when the injuries bit the deal to secure Smithys return was bubbling away behind the scenes to recall Bjb would of taken us over the SC limit so again it was'nt an option.
The loan move has worked wonders for us and the lad and lets be straight barring that awfull injury list last year Bjb would not of had a sniff of a regular place so again it was'nt really a serious option to keep him "on stand by".
The Delaney debate has been done to death he was signed as a centre and deserved to stay at centre and was never in the running for the BR with the likes of Ali ,Jjb ,Ablett ,kirke ,Eastwood and the emergance of Clarkson.
In fact under Bluey it was the intention to spell Senior there to give Watkins more game-time in his natural LC position but of course the injuries bit.
There was a hell of a lot of circumstance that went against us last year and the 99% of the options you or others suggested at the time or mention with hindsight were'nt options when the season planning was in place and it's easy to see why imo.

If the management had shown some faith in Jones-Bishop they needn't have wasted a contract extension on Donald for 2010 and what would the make up of the three-quarters been like now if McClennan and Donald had stayed?

The same people who think Jones-Bishop is all of a sudden worthy of a spot would still be saying let him get some more SL experience elsewhere if Donald hadn't cut and run. It's the kind of thinking that helps to hold our game back.

Watkins, great potential but still needs to look after the ball better in the collision. An old issue that is still a concern.

Agreed - class apart from anything in SL and he 5 years passed his best - the England set up should be getting him to do some masterclasses with the likes of young Milner at Castleford

If you take the NRL model as the patent then the second row forwards are simply tackling machines - which is why Ellis has been so successful down under then a back row containing Delanney and Clarkson would do very nicely with either Ali or Hauraki to provide the ball running back row player.

On last night's performance Watkins still looks like he has much to improve on his defence - although I think he played the last 30 minutes injured

a lot impressed me. delaney was brilliant i thought. hauraki impressed too but i thought buderus ran the show with burrow great in support. what amazed me was how easily we handled there big men. they rarely got a quick ptb as they were always turned on there back. tell you what though, it was BLOODy FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!

Agree 99% D ,but i think saying Burrow bombed more chances than he created is harsh because i thought the timing/runners and options were off as much as Burrow getting the sole blame.

For the BJB try, did anyone else notice the flick back by Sinfield between the kick through and BJB taking the ball? It was a very risky play as he could have easily knocked the ball beyond BJB and into open field for a Hull player to run onto, but as it turned out it was pure genius. In terms of a "rugby brain" Sinfield is up there with any other player around at the moment, but sometimes I feel that his body can't match what his brain wants it to do.

I'd agree with all of this bar your comments about Burrow who I thought was excellent, again.

As for the Buderus hero worship he was indeed excellent and we may well see the best of him playing 80 mins a week, assuming he remains fit all season long. However, we're two games in to the season so let's not get too carried away.

It wasn't Diskin or Buderus's fault that the club wanted to go to a 2 hooker system. We had been hugely successful with Diskin (who looked pretty handy last week) and I hope we are as successful with Buderus. He only has 4 championships to get there...

And disco moved on to seek rep honours he only has 24 caps to go to get near bedsy, not to mention 21 origin caps? Let's see where disco is at when he has another 55 first grade and rep games under is belt like DB.

big chomp

Be careful judging players on Championship medals, doesn't Ian Kirke have more Championship medals than Lewis Jones for example?