Quote: vbfg "We really need to stop trotting this nonsense out. Les had bags of potential in his first year, including at least one miracle pass that led directly to a try and some stunning tackles. The only people who thought he was terrible in his first year were people from other clubs who hardly saw him play who were eager to tell us what a waste of money he was.
Somehow this has become everyone who is sh[ii[/it for a year deserves another chance because Les was sh[ii[/it for a year. The flaw in the argument is that Les was never sh[ii[/it.'"
It isn't always matter of not being good for people to get the knives out, as we well know. There were quite a few who had a down on Les early on to be honest. He burst onto the scene in NZ because he was a big bloke and everyone thought was going to be RL's answer to Jonah Lomu. He came to us after a long time out with a bad injury and the club got slammed, by Bradford fans who thought it was a 'risk', for that on the boards (plus ça change) and in truth he was a bit naive defensively, particularly under the high ball.
Most of that has little to do with his ability, but to do with people, he took a bit of time to get fully up to speed and then, as now, some had no patience.