Quote Mighty_Wires88="Mighty_Wires88"Cooper, Hill & Philbin have always been our most selected props over the last 3 years. There has been an over reliance on them during that period, we tend to struggle in the pack if one or more of them is missing. Davies or Clarke covering as prop isn’t the answer, they don’t have the presence and go forward we need. It’s a position that needs looking at urgently, Hill isn’t getting any younger & last night was another example that if Cooper doesn’t play we get outmuscled.
Now that BBM has left we really will be lacking a bit of punch in the back row too, Clark & Hughes are very much the same in terms of being good defensively with a quick PTB - that’s about it. Currie, will always have good hands & skill to offer something different however because of injuries he just isn’t the same player he was.
Rob Butler will be handy picky up, when it hopefully gets announced. But we still need another prop, Sita & Latu from what I’ve seen are not the answer.'"
Some good points in there. Additionally;
I don't think we are getting the best from Daryl Clark, simply because he gets sucked into too much of the hard defensive work with the opposition forwards - which our pack needs to be doing.
We have scored quite a few long distance tries this year. Forget the fact that they look really good when they come off, ask why it is happening. I think the simple reason is that we are not further up field because our pack struggles to get us there.
Whilst no younger props are being introduced to the squad (imported or from Academy), our two front line props will be 32/33 next year and Hill is certainly starting to fade.
We have been running down our resources and doing nothing to replace them ( perhaps with Doro there is some hope).
It's ironic that our near neighbour who has done pretty well with props has now managed to secure a very decent prospect for next year. They have plugged a gap very early whilst we seem to be oblivious to the fact that we have even got a problem.