The point Headhunter makes about Worrincey 'outside a good halfback' is fair. When playing with Ben Jeffries (barely above average but still our best 6 by a distance in years) he ran good lines, broke tackles and scored important tries (at home against Leeds and away against Sts in 2009).

Last year due to the woeful squad composition he was spelled at prop in a team that played almost all year without a recognised stand off and most of it without a 7 either. This does not mitigate against some of the worst 'missed tackles' seen at Odsal in a long time. Having said that ever since SM took over our defence was in decline and in no way can Worrincey be blamed for all those games where we conceded 3 or 4 tries in the opening 1/4 only to start to play better out of feared humiliation.

In short I feel we have been a very poorly coached and assembled squad and if MP thinks he can make use of Worrincey then I'm right behind him.

<Phil Clarke mode on>

Do you know Eddeh, Mick Potter has assembled his squad like a potter shaping his wares on the potter's wheel. To be successful, he will have to mix the quality imported clays from Australia with the more inconsistent locally-sourced clays. He will have to break some mis-fired pots (Worrincy etc) from the previous regime and hope that they don't weaken the temper of his new side when he throws them into the mix. He has to mix the clays carefully over the off-season, allowing the new elements to settle into a strong structure. At somepoint he will have to fire up the team in the furnace of the SL competition. He must get the atmosphere right - his training must cover up all weaknesses in the mix; the hastily and uneven fired pot will break. By July we will know if his wares are beginning to crack or if the mixture has shown enough durability to match the high quality products of the likes of Wigan and Saints. When competing with these clubs he must encourage the team to be like a Bull in a china shop, and not spend too much time admiring their craftmanship on the rugby field. If not, it may be left to Hood to pick up the pieces at the end of the season...

Almost spot on, you just missed repeated use of the word intensiteh.

hopefully potter will wave his magic wand and make Worrincy and Hall disappear, up there with two of the worst forwards to play for the bulls in SL! However Hall was in his first season so if he improves my opinion may change hypocritically

Point out what's wrong with what I have said then. I'm obviously not trying to compare the two as players, but Worrincy missed less tackles and made less errors than Westwood, that's a fact.

T&a have just published a provisional 25 man squad, the article says not to read anything in to the numbering, but no reason given for worrincy's ommission :

Provisional squad numbers: 1 Michael Platt, 2 Dave Halley, 3 Paul Sykes, 4 Chev Walker, 5 Patrick Ah Van, 6 Brett Kearney, 7 Marc Herbert, 8 Nick Scruton, 9 Heath L’Estrange, 10 Andy Lynch, 11 Olivier Elima, 12 Elliott Whitehead, 13 Jamie Langley, 14 Wayne Godwin, 15 Bryn Hargreaves, 16 Matt Diskin, 17 Craig Kopczak, 18 Ian Sibbit, 19 Shaun Ainscough, 20 Gareth Raynor, 21 Glenn Hall, 22 James Donaldson, 23 Danny Addy, 24 Steve Crossley, 25 Tom Olbison.

No sign of Shad Royston on that list

Nor Vinnie Finnigan. Jason Crookes or, as mentioned, Mike Worrincy

Hmmm.....

Obviously these aren't the actual shirt numbers that the players will wear next year but it is interesting to see that neither Sculthorpe or Worrincy are included in the provisional 25 man squad but Olbison for example has. When the names are listed like that, you realise just how many players we have for next year. Makes you wonder if we may still have a few departures.

I expect all will be revealed in due course.

Are we only allowed 25 players? Why bother publishing a provisional list if it doesn't mean anything? Mmmmmm...

Yes, it seems a bit odd.

We must be allowed more than 25 because numbers often go higher... into the 30's

There's bound to be speculation as to why Royston, Sculthorpe, Worrincy, Crookes and Finnigan aren't on the list.



As for not reading anything into the numbers, well, that is bound to happen isn't it? If they really wanted the numbers to be insignificant they could have made a 25 man training squad and listed them alphabetically. Why bother putting out what looks like a fairly obvious starting pack in the 8-13 slots if there is NO significance in the numbering.

Perhaps they just wanted to create a bit of a talking point amongst the fans

As I understand it we have to nominate a 25 man 1st team squad to RFL from which we pick our 17 each week. we can make changes to this 1st team squad during year but have to notify RFL of the changes each time.

this shouldn't be confused with the 25 players over 25k rule which is for salary cap purposes and isnt necessarly the same 25 players who make up the 1st team squad. This rule is that we are allowed 25 players on 25k a year or more and then another 50k worth off players on top as long as total is less than salary cap.