Just out of interest, go onto the superleague website and compare Laffranchi's stats againts Adrian Morely's this season (both have 7 games recorded), and against some of the Props you would have had us sign this year instead. I know statistics don't tell the whole story, and I'm not saying his stats will necessarily be better, or in some cases match, but I think you'll find they don't suggest he is struggling.

The fact is props in the current game simply aren't like they used to be, they aren't simple battering rams anymore and the rare exception that are generally useless after 10 minutes. There is very little if anything physically between the front and back rows these days with athleticism being preferable over sheer bulk, in fact there's little in terms of size and shape to differentiate between players of most positions anymore which the Aussies have exploited for years. I'd also argue that it's much easier for a 2nd Rower to adapt to playing prop that any other position having to adapt.

There where 9 people in the fantasy.rlfans.com system with him.

I guess they'll all change him now....

Your still missing my point. We lost possibly the best prop in the world and signed a decent backrow to replace him.

I'm not calling laffranchci and never have but we should have replaced jammer with the best prop available.

We've no aggression in the pack, it's to soft.

I completely and totally agree with you.

so you're happy with how we're playing? do you think the attack looks organised?

It's not just the attack either, we've shipped far to many points this season. It's ok Royce saying we defended well last week, we was playing a poor injury hit side who had sammut out.

We shipped 36 points against hull kr who had both halves out.

From the top to bottom we've been poor in every aspect thus year and not looked good in one single game.

I've not, I agree that in an ideal world we would have replaced Jammer with a player of a similar ability, but the simple fact is there was no-one like him available within our means. Who was the best prop available on the market doesn't necessarily equate to who we would able to attract and sign, its not like picking sides in the playground or in a fantasy league.

Looking at last season (& this year so far) the ideal replacement from the UK would have been Andy Lynch but he signed for Hull FC in September on a two year deal for a "significant six figure deal". Assuming that we could match the deal offered (which I seriously doubt we could), there are any number of other variables that might lead to him choosing to sign for Hull instead, we can't just assume he'd want to come to Saints because we're Saints.

What I'm saying about Laffranchi is we needed a forward who could play prop, he has played prop in the past (including Wests Tigers' 2005 NRL Grand Final victory) and clearly the club felt he had the attributes to play as an out and out prop for his time here in much the same way TP has. His stats this season are comparable to those of the props at Wigan and Warrington.

Purely as an example (and I'm not directly comparing their level) look at players such as Willie Mason, Petero Civoniceva and Craig Fitzgibbon - on their day they were often considered some of the best players in the world, all capable of and regularly switching between prop and second row.

No on both counts but for feck's sake, you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. We lost by a maximum of four points and at Bradford two of them should never have been awarded - see the RFL's decision on Jamie Foster's so called offence against Bateman. The try Catalans scored at the end of their match against us - the one I was mocked over for getting angry about - should never have been awarded due to the infringement in the previous set when Pryce put his ball carrying arm on the floor with Saints defenders on him. I could go on.

None of those things, plus Puletua dropping a beauty of a pass from Wello on Saturday night, was the fault of the coach.

And, whether any of you admit it or not, we had hauled in our defence over the last two weeks. Even when we were down to 12 men we held our line. People were berating Royce for his defensive structure yet we have seen it in action over the last two weeks, just as we saw it as the season wore on last year too. The attack would come, just as it did last season when we were adapting to being without Cunningham, Pryce and Eastmond. The young players had to learn how to deal with mistakes and he would have been helping them with that. With Lance Hohaia in there, and others too, it is quite possible that our attack would have become more varied once the confidence issue had been resolved as we would not be relying solely upon two novices to make all the plays.

Welcome to the modern world bro

I know it's impossible to replace jammer with someone with the same ability but we should have got the best prop available and not a backrow. For me, laffranchci done ok but he lacks the things prop do naturally like aggression.

I think everyone agrees that we need another prop but with no English props about and no quota spots free we are stuck with what we got.

Darrell Griffin was the best prop available and he wanted to go to the champions. What's your next move now that's one gone?