Couldn't agree more, looks like Jimmy won't drop King however badly he plays

What a shame, but I'm not surprised as I think we know that would happen given his couple of times being dropped last year and Lowes' comments at the forum.

Chris Riley
Chris Hicks
Martin Gleeson
Matt King
Paul Johnson
Lee Briers
Michael Monaghan
Adrian Morley
Mickey Higham
Garreth Carvell
Louis Anderson
Ben Westwood
Vinnie Anderson
Chris Bridge, Paul Wood, Paul Rauhihi, Matty Blythe.

Tyrone McCarthy, Ben Harrison as 18 and 19

Agreed Penny should not have been dropped, but he will bounce back from it a better player.

i think its right that penny is dropped. as much as i want him to succeed the only time he will do anything is if he has open space ahead of him. its been said before, but he does concede more tries than he scores.


penny cant defend well enough. i think with Johnson there kings defence will improve.

if i were king, i would feel playing with penny that you would have to defend the winger as well as the centre, but if johno goes there, there will be no doubt in my mind that he would be strong defensively, so king can concentrate on his own centre.

You may care if you carry on posting that sort of rubbish and end up banned, have you read the warnings issued today??

To be fair the necessary decisions have been made. Gleesons fit so he's in. We need to strangthen the left as whichever way you slice it - it didn't work.

I'd put King on the wing & play Jonno at centre. But there has to ba a concern after he was turned inside out by a second rower straight out of a scrum. Bridge to cover 1-7 from the bench dependant on how injurys hold & how we're playing.

To win this game we need our back row to be on fire & to Bosc at every opportunity.

I agree, although Penny wasn't to blame for our defeat to Saints he did not exactly fill me with confidence, over running a passes (although some were poor passes), getting picked up and walked backwards when returning kicks and he never seems to find the right position in the defensive line. For instance they score tries in our corner and Hicks always had to check inside and ended up getting tackled instead of scoring (altough I concede there is a bit more to that debate than Kevin Penny alone).

I think Kevin Penny has the potention to be a really good player but needs to work on his game and build IMO (he is built more like a footballer). When we have the talent of Gleeson and V.Anderson coming back into the team it is not the biggest insult in the world to be dropped.

But surely he could have been at 18 or 19 instead of Harrison or McCarthy?

I know there are a lot of Penny fans out here but I wouldn't play him until April / May. He needs fast tracks not slugfests where he will not get a sniff of the ball. You need your wingers to run from DH on tackles 1 and 2 in games at this time of year and he is terrible at this. It his not just his defence, his all round game is poor. Taylor welch would be a better prospect at the moment

To be honest I thought his nerve had gone on Friday night, he was fumbling around with pretty simple kicks. When he picked up the ball to return the kick he was getting dragged back and his bottle went when trying to tidy up a saints knock on near our own line with Wilkin ready to smash him as soon as he picked it up.

Whatever confidence he did have will have gone after Friday night.
I think he would benefit more from a loan spell at Widnes / Leigh rather than going back to the reserves.
Harsh but see you in April Kev.

Thing is, IMO Johnson is not quick enough to be a winger, he will always be a centre/second rower to me. So, hopefully King will start on the wing because he is much quicker. Would like to see Penny return to the squad soon, and hopefully be more determined to stay in it.

The squad for me:

Riley
Hicks
Glees
Johno
King
Briers
Monas
Morley
Higham
Carvell
Landerson
Westwood
Vanderson

Subs:
Wood
Rauhihi
Blythe
Bridge

Play Bridge on the wing and King on the bench.

Hasn't Taylor Welch gone back to the US?

Catalans 19

1 Clint Greenshields
2 Cyril Stacul
3 Steven Bell
4 Adam Mogg
5 Dimitri Pelo
6 Thomas Bosc
7 Shane Perry
8 David Ferriol
9 Casey McGuire
10 Jerome Guisset
12 Jason Croker
13 Gregory Mounis
14 Dane Carlaw
15 Jean Philippe Baile
16 Olivier Elima
17 Cyrille Gossard
19 Julien Touxagas
22 Jamal Fakir
24 Rémi Casty


So Cyril Stacul poses so much of a threat that jimmy feels the need to drop Kevin Penny.... lord help us

TBF I havent seen him sprint in Quite a While.

TANCW I now think that Bridge should play wing with King on the bench, much better than my sugestion

We know Penny is a local lad and all but isn't that fact clouding some people's judgment here.
Cullen was a very poor coach and the only reason he stayed coach was because he was Moran's mate and a local lad.
The same seems to be happening to Penny he is a very poor player and yet he remains in the 1st team picture in most fans minds.
People say we never give Local talent a break and were always calling them but it doesn't matter weather your from Lithuania or Longford if you cant play rugby then you cant play rugby.
Matt king isn't blameless but for some people it seems easier to point blame at an overrated Australian on a big wage rather than somebody from your own town.

The left edge will be massively susceptible to attacking at pace.