Soliola's best position is second row regardless, he had his best form in the NRL being picked there. We may as well blood a youngster in the three-quarters, and if he excels then we have a decent young British centre on our hands. There is a lack of them around at the moment, and playing foreign second rowers in their place isn't going to help the situation.

Good point well made but as it is I'd rather play him there against some of the sides with stronger centres a la leeds where his experience and larger size may be needed.

also a good point! I wouldn't mind seeing one of his trade mark hits on Senior

True, I wouldn't expect him to be playing every game at his age, especially against centres of a certain mentality (Senior would bully him and put him off his game, not that you can blame him if he has the chance) but I would at least like to see him given a fair crack of the whip against the lesser teams such as Warrington.

aint seen you in the fc forum recently rommell???? anything to do with the first day defeat???.....

As i was stood on the Pop side for the Hull game I have not actually seen him yet

Are you talking about Wheeler there? If you are, I can't see Senior bullying him at all. Wheeler strikes me as being too grounded to be bullied.

As for size of pack ... he scored our winning try against Catalans last year with at least two defenders hanging off him and you can't get a much bigger pack than that!

It's a bit early to discuss how good he has been as he got injured in the first game of the season against Hull FC. I just hope when or if he gets back into the team he proves to us that he is the big powerful and skillful player we thought he was when we signed him.

He may well be bullied by opposition players, it's a tactic that I'd try against him if I was the oppostion coach, being physical with him, trying to undermine his confidence with a bit of sledging, that kind of thing. That's part of the learning curve though and if he wants to play at the highest level something he'll have to learn to deal with. However, I've not seen any real indication in his play so far that it's a tactic that will have much success.

I'd play him until he needs a rest. He's still only young and will need time out at some points this year.

Yes, but Billinge_lump pretty much summed up my point above. Wheeler is young and light, Senior is experienced and a monster (and a 'third man in' cheap shot merchant for most of his career, but he did a good job of bullying an experienced back-rower in Wilkin last season). It would only make sense to try and put Wheeler off his game by roughing him up a bit, I suppose it's up to the coaches as to whether he is far enough into his development to be thrown in with the dogs. I can't, on the other hand, see Soliola being thrown around quite so easily.

Whereas I have absolutely no idea whether Soliola would be thrown around easily or not since I've only half seen him for half a match but I have seen Wheeler play under considerable pressure - for instance against Catalans, who have a big, burly, feisty pack. I'm pretty confident that Wheeler could hold his own against the dirtbags in the game as well as the gents. Besides, we can't go on protecting him from the nasty beasties for ever. He's, what, 20 now? Or 21? It's time we found out for certain whether he can hold his own against old ugly buttocks. I'd bet on it that he can.

It isn't a case of protecting Wheeler, he will have to deal with it at some point, and that certainly wasn't anybodies argument. It is a case of whether playing Soliola at centre will win us a game against Leeds due to him being a certain type of player. Judging by his career in the NRL, Soliola is a second rower, no doubt, but the original point was that it may be more advantageous to our team to play him at centre against certain opposition.

Ok. I would say it would be to our advantage to have Wheeler at centre and Soliola in the second row. Against Leeds and everyone else.

I understand where you are coming from, but for me, if he's playing well I'd keep Wheeler at centre.

Players playing together more often gain understanding of each others games, sometimes I think picking and choosing players depending on the opposition can damage our own game, doing more harm than good.