How much salary cap space will be left to sign a scrum half if they keep bringing in players who we don't necessarily need? I think Lovegrove will prove a half decent signing but we need a scrum half more. I'm still baffled by the Mather's one. Each player that is added chips another chunk off the available wage to try to lure a quality scrum half to Odsal. By the time one becomes available, we won't be able to afford him.

I'm aware a scrum half isn't going to slot into the side with a weeks training but would you rather sign somebody like Siejka now??

I'm happy with the Lovegrove signing, he's a good player with a lot of experience and he can cover a few different positions in the forwards.
Mathers I'm still not sure about, however once Campbell is back (which should be fairly soon I hope?) I would expect Mathers to take more of a backseat role and focus more on teaching our younger players what he knows about positioning and communicating with the defensive line etc.

If he's fit (the t&a recently said he was) I'd be tempted to give Campbell a game on Friday. At least a bench spot.

Well considering we haven't signed a 7 (and we all know we need one including yourself) and we have approx 4 months before the 8's begin, id rather we signed a player at least a couple of months (at the latest a couple of weeks training with the squad) before they start so may/june they would at least have a chance of making a difference to the squad otherwise what's the point in someone coming in to our first game cold that's a recipe for disaster.

IMO we needed to have someone signed up in the off season but we signed a load of back rowers (fair enough they are better than what we have had) but then we signed Mathers listening on the radio he had a shocker against batley when he was put under pressure we also have Campbell and Thomas (who has looked good when i have seen him at FB) seem to have scatter gunned the squad without addressing the real issue, fair enough there might be a shortage of decent 7's but all we needed where someone better than Seijka that couldnt have been to difficult to find.

Id like Lovegrove in at 13 (alternating with Addy), Pitts/Ferg/Olbison make a good trio in at 2nd row, don't think he is big enough at prop although the will do for now until we have everyone back fit.

Strange as it sounds id be willing to try Lauaki on friday along with some untested players like Campbell, if we go out we go out more time to focus on the league.

Once Easter is out of the way, more SL clubs will look at their roster & think their 3rd or 4th choice halfbacks may need some game time on loan.

We did look at halfbacks this season, we didn't keep him on after his trial

And of course, we had our half back problem sorted 18months ago, but Wire decided they wanted to keep him after all and we graciously let him go back. It was probably morally the right thing to do, but I am certain it cost us promotion last year, and last year was our best shot.

Hopefully you're right Highlander, there must be someone on the clubs radar, Jimmy and Ferres have to know we are getting desperate for someone to lead us round the park as we do look lost sometimes.

Even more so now that the league seems to be more competitive than last year (I don't agree with the view we only need to finish in the top 4 that's bonkers).

I would have Brierley if we do have limited options, fair enough he isnt a text book 7 but he will take alot of pressure off Gaskell and add some flow to our flanks which with Addy can be stagnent.

Brierley and Gaskell would mean Gaskellt at 7 and Brierley at 6.

That's not leading us round the park.

If we signed Brierley it would allow Gaskell to lead us around the park. At the moment he's doing everything. If we wanted someone to just lead us a round we might as well have kept Siejka or Jacks (who i still think we should have persisted with)

Both their strengths are as broken field runners. Gaskell has a bit more to his game, but he's still a natural stand off capable of exploiting gaps. It would look great in the Championship but for me it'd be papering over cracks that would still persist into the M8s. We still wouldn't have a kicking game to speak of.

Sorry probably didnt describe it very well, meant to say failing a 7 who can take charge having another player like Gaskell (Brierley/Sammut) that would give us some creativity on the field, as someone has mentioned on the other thread that when we passed to Addy he just gave it to a stationary player and didnt add anything.

At least with another similar player we could utilise both sides of our attack and not just one, thing by watching the games this season i have been able to attended we rarely use our full squad when attacking, one side might be extremely quite, usually the side Addy is playing on or more the fact (as he plays more central) we lose some creativity on the opposite edge to Gaskell.

Think we should have persisted with Jacks more also, thought during the friendly vs Leeds he played very well and took the line on something Seijka rarely did, we also dont know what JL wants the players to do that might be his gameplan all the time, id rather have to off the cuff players who can make things happen.

If I see this suggestion many more times I will explode.... We don't want or need him.

I went to Batley v Workington - he was totally outplayed for the full 80, poor kicking and zero impact in every aspect.

He is playing at the correct level where he is - or possibly lower if he plays many more games as badly as the ones I have seen.

Let's be honest though, that's always been Sammut. He'll either practically win you the game on his own, or practically lose you the game on his own. Never a shade of grey with Jarrod, he was brilliant or awful.

Was that the game where he dropped a goal when his team were losing by 6 points