His time yanking off over Watkins seems to eat up his time.

Bet his balls are like peas now.

I guess that depends if Harrigan was being genuinely critical of Burrow when he was being used almost exclusively out of dummy half as he appears to have been this season to date.

McGuire is clearly being favoured in the scrum-half role now and the creative side of his game is developing well. His short kicking game seems to be causing problems for the opposition on a weekly basis as he takes on more of the responsibility.

Not sure I accept the OP's assertion that we are increasingly moving away from being a passing team. I thought we actually played a very expansive game on Friday, and our use of set moves and runners from deep in the attacking line was probably greater than I've seen in the previous few years.

If Burrow scoots a bit from dummy half, I have no problem with that. It becomes one of the many threats an opponent needs to be alive to. Any side facing Leeds knows they need only switch off at marker once and there are going to be points on the board. As a team we hardly played one-out rugby did we?

On the hooker position, I thought Friday both showed Hood's potential, and also the reasons he's being introduced gradually. He looks so far (big caveat, he hasn't exactly had loads of game time) like he has good instincts and awareness, and looks sharp. However, he also got a bit over-excited a couple of times and his execution suffered. That will almost certainly improve with experience, which I'm happy for him to get slowly this season. I suspect the same might be true of McShane, so we may not see both of them in the same match day 17 too often, unless injuries force the coach's hand.

It's this that gives me such optimism .... I can now see the sense of blooming both young hookers gradually at this end of the season while the injuries are few and the team with Burrow at hooker is playing well enough to still win matches.
Come the business end of the season both hookers ( plus the likes of Watkins and Hardaker ) will have that much more experience and confidence to win the club another GF ....

Can't wait to see a future interchange hooker combo of McShane and Hood ...

True this, and we did it much more effectively than Wire who seemed intent on playing their exciting brand of fast and wide rugby at too great a pace. Many of their errors were forced by good defence but I think we were much more aware of the conditions. Warrington on their day are very, very good but I reckon they came unstuck by believing they could be that good with a ball that seemed like a piece of soap at times.

This thread has restored my faith in the quality of young British Internet trolls

To be honest, watching us against Wire I thought at times we looked quite predictable, and yes we could have moved the ball a bit more, with a bit more pace.

However, its a dangerous game comparing us to Wire as in my opinion they are one of the best attacking sides in the competition. They offload well and they can suddenly hit you at pace when they looked to be a bit pedestrian. For me they are probably the closest side we have to the Aussies in the way they attack.

So against that we will look a little off the pace. But its swings and roundabouts. I like to see us play expansive attacking football, but I also like to see us win. I think from what Ive seen this year Brian has got the balance better than he did last year.

Wire's ability to move the ball wide at speed impressed me at times on Friday, especially when going left. It reminded me of how the Aussies played over the Autumn. However the final pass execution didn't seem to come off too often

Burrow was easily our biggest metre maker against Warrington and he made the 2nd highest carries with 15 out of 25 as a run from dummy half. He also was our highest for tackle busts with 5 in the game. He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. He would certainly take some replacing if he were to get injured.

Quote: Juan Cornetto " He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. '" Quality timing : www.engagesuperleague.co.uk/stat ... eason=2012

Quote: Juan Cornetto " He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. '" Quality timing : www.engagesuperleague.co.uk/stat ... eason=2012

Seriously? You seriously believe those are the stats key to an hooker.

I gave you more credit than that.

Edit. I was quoting JC not tvoc.

Psst You weren't quoting anyone.

no doubt some good individual stats but I do worry that Burrow seems to ignore some good planned moves

Yes I seriously do! Because I believe the hooker role does not have to be sterotyped in the past. Burrow brings his own successful style to the 9 shirt and has been one of the major reasons for our good start this year and our success last year. He is posing one of the biggest threats to opposition coaches and teams and has been terrorising them so far.