Amongst the very average players, I belive Diskin and Elima were above average, and I hoped Hargreaves would prove to be so, although he has disappointed me somewhat.

As another poster said, our strongest 17 is better than our position atm. We still do have some quality players - L'Estrange, Kearney, Elima, Langley. But all of them have spent time out with injury and the players who have come into cover are not good enough in alot of cases. Given we were told the squad now had the depth to deal with this it is a little disappointing.

Although you have to consider us very unlucky as the two players we probably need on the park the most (Kearney & Heath) are the ones who've picked up the longer injuries.

An interesting story in today's (Thurs) T&A, with Connor Murphy bemoaning the lack of an organising scrum hall who bellows out instructions and generally runs the team.

I think he has a genuine point to be honest. Lynchy, as skipper, doesn't really do any organising and, as has already been said, he's only on the field for half the game anyway. Add in Connor's points that our halves are generally more suited to stand off or backing up than being used as organising scrum halves and it suggests where the problems are and the type of player we need to recruit.

As a criticism of what we have it's a well though out piece of journalism and I'm pretty much prepared to go along with it.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... d_general/ Here's a link. Agree with above. Probably the best piece of critical analysis I've read from Connor.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... d_general/ Here's a link. Agree with above. Probably the best piece of critical analysis I've read from Connor.

Very good piece.

That said, its only really what a lot of people have been saying on this forum for most of the season. Analysing the problem would appear to be a whole lot easier than solving it....

Best piece from Connor for ages IMO. And not just saying that because I agree with all of it!

Finally a critical piece. A very good piece of sports journalism from Connor.

I like the article although I think he could have pointed the finger more at certain players (lynch and hargreaves etc)

I have one issue RE Herbert/ HB situation and would like to know others thoughts. If it is agreed that he is a better SO and we are lacking the organising SH, has Herbert shown more than BJ for the SO role. Herbert is 24 and has shown v good glimses of what we will want from a SO if we sign an organising scrum half. I just dont see BJ EVER leading us to top 4, whereas Herbert can/is improving and his game could kick us on with the right HB partner and some more effective weapons on the fringes. Thoughts?

agree with that re herbert. think herbert may have to be sacrificed to get us the organising half though assuming we have to go overseas. if it was straight preference I'd stick with herbert over jeffries but jeffries has advantage of not counting on quota.

I'd sooner sacrifice Ah Van to be honest. Ah Van started well but has got worse IMO, albeit not necessarily playing in his best position. What he offers could be offered by others, including the goal kicking. So, if it comes down to a choice between the two, then I'd be looking ot keep Herbert.

this is exactly my thought process. An upgrade for Herbert will cost $$$ and a quota when Ah Van has done nothing to suggest he cant be replaced relatively cheaply or with youngsters. Wing is an easy position to fill, and we have 2 others in the role that most people on here rate. herbert is the best we have in his position, is improving and it is the most difficult position to recruit.

Wouldnt argue with that. But I suspect ah van is going anyway to accomodate another . just get impression he was given chance to make a spot his own and him being moved back to wing says he's failed (combined with way his performances have dropped off last few weeks). Hence if we want a half too then herbert has to go too unless we can fill one off the /half spots with a uk player.

good points here. thinking about it, we MAY be better doing that if we can get a top class centre as that would be a massive improvement, and jeffries isnt massively worse than herbert although there is no potential with him. I will be very happy if it pans out that we have to let Herbert and Ah Van go for a top drawer centre and half.

there maybe more chance of geeting uk player for the spot than the halves one meaning we'd only need to lose one off ah van/herbert to fill the two positions. wonder if theres any mileage in platt/sykes plus cash to salford for ratchford?. wire seem to have gone a bit cool on him and salford fans dont seem over enthused about patten at FB. ratchford obviously isnt finished article but probably one of better british prospects who could be available.

ive heard that ratchford was wanted by saints and wigan as well as wire plus i thought he was ooc so its more a matter of where he wants to go not what salford accept. id sign matty blythe from wire personally