Agreed.

The Warriors use Townsend on the left, Johnson on the right, with Tomkins slotting into a halfback position on either side when he can. Completely different to how Wigan used him to finish off moves, for the Warriors he's more of a play maker.

I guess Wigan fans probably noticed, but I didn't know his hands were as good as they are. Some sublime touches so far this year.

A few mistakes and a couple of games where he's not quite been on it, but generally he's getting better and better.


The Burgess lads were awesome against St George. Graham too has been brilliant.

We can produce great players, even if they play in aus, long as they keep up that form for England and we can partner them with our best SL (not just McNamaras faves) we should do really well for abit of time too bad sam is off to union.

Graham's by far the most consistent. Great go forward and great hands for a forward. Sam's obviously talented, but unfortunately he'll leave league with his job still largely unfinished. If George can up a bit of his game time, he'l be a monster for Souths and England/GB.
Tomkins' major problem is Johnson. As has already been touched upon, he's too much of a maverick. It looks like he's going to get Tomkins involved in the play then goes off on his own. SIMO it looks like Sam's talent is being wasted a little at the moment...
Widdop's a good'un, but needs to be playing behind a pack with the upper hand. Still a shoe-in for the 4 Nations, mind...

Lee Mossop makes his debut for Parramatta off the bench this Friday. Looks like he will play second row.

Sam Burgess performance yesterday was impressive, ran over 100 meters in the first half alone, finished up on 192, the only other players to break 150 were Ben Creagh at 151 and George B at 182. Tom also chipped in with 143 meters and 21 tackles off bench.

I don't know why, but I have a feeling that a u-turn may be on the cards for Sam. Might be wishful thinking on my part, but there's a lot for Sam to accomplish in RL

That ship has sailed. Sam B may regret leaving but he won't back down.

I still think he mistakenly believed all the TV hype about how great it was to have SBW back in RL which was pushed ridiculously by Channel 9 and suggested that RL fans were happy for their stars to come and go to RU when and as they liked, when the fact is that a lot of RL fans here had had enough of RL players talking about moving to RU as though it is just the same as changing clubs.

Fifita made the same mistake too. Sam B may have suffered from being the straw which broke the camel's back in that regard, but hard luck.

One thing is for sure - I think San will hate playing Union. There just will not be the opportunity for him to do the workload he likes to do.

If he's playing in the backs, he won't be able to run the ball as often as he will want to, and certainly not trying to break the line. If he's in the forwards, he'll be lucky to touch the ball more than 10 times a game, and won't get the opportunity to make as many tackles - although he'll be involved in lots of pushing and shoving (which he seems to like nowadays anyway).

I just can't get away from the fact that a move to Union is a monumental waste of his talent. He is built for rugby league, he's got the wrong shape, speed and skill set to be a back in Union, and although he's the right build to be a Union forward, he's far too dynamic to be wasted rucking and mauling.

it was possible to walk there one time... up to about 10,000 years ago.

You can swim there from jersey fairly comfortably if your a half decent swimmer.

Lee Mossop was solid on debut, but knocked on close to his own line. It could have cost his team the game but it didn't.

Ray Hadley pointed out that the last English player to play for Parramatta was Chris Thorman, who now plays for a "lower division club" York at age 33.

Had to laugh, he also said they have had some good English players, and some really bad ones. Wonder who he meant?

another outstanding performance from sam burgess this weekend. ran for 191 metres, his brother george next best on 143. tom burgess did well do - 120 odd metres off the bench. 25 tackles from sam too. though it was against a poorish wests team. he'll be a loss for them next year (and the game). however tom looks like he is standing up to be counted and could end up a decent replacement for sam in the longer term. not sure where all of this leaves the other brother luke, who is still a solid reliable forward.