You haven't watched him much. Prior to playing lock he played second-row. I was at the game in which he scored his first try in first grade. He's basically a second-rower asked to play at lock, and very occasionally as a stand-off.

Typical Aussie flexibility re their official positions. So dynamic. Hard to say who the dead-set 2nd rowers are they tend to shift positions so frequently.

Lewis, O'Donnell and Creagh have all played 2nd row in origin this year in an arguably dominant NSW pack.
Idris swaps between 2nd row and centre depending on the state of the game. He's still better than Westwood even in a part time capacity. As for Costigan, I've seen him play more than any other this year and wow, he's been cracking for St George. Has played prop, 2nd row and once at centre which wasn't his best game to be fair.
Gallen, yeh, I was being a bit cheeky there as he's probably the most orthodox lock of the lot. Is he better than Westwood at 2nd row though. Pretty sure he would be...

Willie Mason. After this year, erm, no! Truly dreadful until around round 20 when he scraped mediocrity.
Carl Webb. 2nd row? Well, if Carl Webb wants to play 2nd row or any other row for that matter, I wouldn't tell him otherwise. He scares people even when he's trying to be nice I'm sure....

He can do a job at both, and has played second-row effectively. Who would you rather have at Salford: Carl Webb as a second-rower or Ben Westwood?

Paul Gallen simply doesn't have the ball-handling skills to be, what I would call a proper 'No13'. If memory serves, he broke into Origin as a second-rower, and he broke into the Sharks team as a second-rower.

He's still far better than Westwood

Well, if you put it that way... Yeh, I'm with you. Ha. A bloke who has struggled to maintain a 1st team sot in the wooden spoon club is arguably better than a current England squad member. And they go on about the Aussie's backline.
You just watch. The Kangaroos will show up, get drunk for a month, play dreadful and England'll win the bloody thing, followed by months of 'experts' on the game such as Barrie Mc heaping praise upon the state of British rugby league...

You seem to have confused their bodily functions - they will actually be pi55ing themselves?!?

Ratchford has been ommitted from the wales game

Myler and Tomkins were the obvious starters. Stef probably had a better chance on the bench. You'd have to say Chris Bridge has been preferred over him in that role.

And who does he play for I wonder
Almost 2 yrs out but still picked.
The fact that he was in the squad for Ireland in the WC but now decides he wants to play for England is also a joke.
And there was me thinking Tony Smith would show no bias

Far too sensible a idea for the RFL to use.

So it starts, Stefan, if you were playing for a "big" club I would have put you in, Smith not picking on form just on club or "new" club, how much longer can we hold onto Stefan. Its the Coley situation all over again