GOLDING. Got there in the end.

I'm not sure he'd go for Briscoe at left centre though because of the Burrow defensive issue. LC has to be 4th man in when Burrow is on (with McGuire that side also) so he might not fancy Briscoe there for that reason. Ablett is an obvious choice to go there but could depend on fitness of others in the 2nd row. If Achurch is still missing and with Delaney still feeling his way back to fitness, you would want Ablett in the back row.

There's no mandatory time out. Players have to take COG tests that measure reactions etc and get within a certain percentage of the baseline figure they set at the start of the season.

He was miles out of position for both tries, made almost no ground with kick returns and offered nothing in attack - for all he did we might as well have played with 12 men.

For all saying he 'did well' he did bugger all and is getting off lightly because he's an academy player the likes of nantwich are desperate to do well.

he did well under the high ball for one.
he didnt make metres in the tackled, but he's a schoolkid and im not suprised he wasnt strong enough to do
given that he probably wasnt expected to play as soon as he has, im guessing he wont know the set plays we have or be able to play the same role in our system that Zak does. we also wont have plays specifically designed for his skill set
also, given how our attack in general wasnt very good on friday im really not sure what you expected him to do?

for a kid who isnt full time i thought he did well being thrown in the deep end at short notice, as seemingly did Peacock who gave him a lot of praise in his interview with the YEP

I like it when I'm proved right.

If Golding was that 'cack' a reasonably strong team like Warrington would have scored a lot more than 18 points.

The game is more physical than it was even a decade ago, so I'm not surprised a teenager struggled in that regard. His performance was also by contrast to Hardaker, one of the physically strongest full backs in SL, and whose game is based around strength. From what I've seen Golding's more of a ball handler with a bit of zip, which makes it far harder to make an impact on a team than a strength-based player.

In any event, if Hardaker is out (for a while at least), then Golding should be given his chance. He'll learn more playing against Warrington and Wigan than in a whole season at U 19.

He isn't or wasn't "cack" but it is a bit of an issue if Hardaker is missing for a prolonged/permanent period that we play in a certain way that doesn't suit Golding at the moment with his physical build. One of our strongest areas is the work our back 3 do in taking carries and making good metres back in our own half early in sets giving our forwards a breather. All three (Hardaker, Hall, Briscoe) were all in the top 10 in the league last season for metres made and also are for this year so far, in neither year did/does any other club have more than 1 back in the Top 15 (where yet another Leeds back in Watkins is roughly around both seasons).

Hardaker was top before missing this weekend and still sits 2nd. Last year he finished 3rd but would've comfortably finished top had he not gotten himself that 5 match suspension. Golding whilst an emerging talent and with some skill obviously doesn't have it in his locker YET to be giving us those kind of metres in that sort of fashion. I believe it's one of the main reasons why we opted to get Briscoe in ahead of BJB as the latter wasn't as strong in the donkey work department as our two current wingers are. It could be something Golding improves/develops in time but you'd imagine it'd take an off-season of bulking up ala Stevie Ward, which is obviously a significant period away from the present.

I would agree with all this.

He contributed a damned sight more than Hardaker did.

I'm a bit bemused what people seem to think Hardaker offers linking into the line from full-back, other than to usually represent the end of a move by either taking the tackle or throwing a pass at someone's feet?

Well you were certainly right on this occasion. And it was also nice to know you are booking an appointment at Specsavers

I think the criticism of Golding is very harsh - if Hardaker's positioning was always perfect all well and good but it isn't and we have seen examples this season of his inability to read the game.

Hardaker's error rate also seems to be very high compared to previous years - I may be wrong in that?

I fully agree. Hardaker makes plenty of metres but often at the expense of creating opportunities for others. He is not a 'head up' player and is either just greedy or simply unaware of how to create space and overlaps. It is unfair to expect fireworks from an 18 year old making his first start in a difficult fixture against a top defense. He did ok given the circumstances and has shown in his junior career so far that he has all the skills to make it into the first team either as a linking fullback or a half back. I look forward to seeing him develop further.

Agree 100%. And I've seen plenty of worse performances at FB than Golding's - which was, in no shape or form, a bad one overall.