Well play the man, Tony!

Yes Russell is a better winger, he is arguably the best player in our team at making metres and getting quick PTB down thd middle, whether people like it or not that's essential.

And yes Penny is a poor defender compared to most sl wingers. Obviously Smith agrees considering he cannot get in the team however out of got our wingers are.

Tell me.
You're doing some DIY at home, and you need to take a screw out of a wall. Do you...

a) get a knife out of the drawer, and use the tapered end. It'll just about do the job, but you'll struggle.

or

b) use a screwdriver.

I know which one I do.

And it's a wingers job to score tries, not make metres. That's the pack's job. Unless yiu want Russell's forte.....dummy half scootzzzzzzzzzz

Don't know the statistics but from memory it seems that every time kp does get a start he scores.

Everyone is agreed that Penny has defensive frailties, but he is a very good finisher.
Russell is not a winger but he is very strong and excellent at bringing the ball back. (Yes typically it's the forwards job but real quick ptb is not by forwards).
It depends on how TS wants to play.
When Lineham and Penny were brought back (against Wigan or Cats - I can't remember) Lineham made maybe 1 mistake and 2 great plays. Penny made 2 mistakes and 1 or 2 great plays.
Fine lines but that's what meant Penny was behind Lineham and lost his place to Russell.

I'm still not convinced by Lineham, but he's 22.
Penny is 28.

In the GF the winning try was through Lineham making a basic mistake (similar to Penny against Hull? on our try line) and Russell getting caught out - although to be fair he came up to close the play down but was caught out by a clever kick.
I think he had switched off for a couple of seconds and that may have cost us. On balance the main issue was with Lineham....
Ironically I called this a couple of weeks before the GF - the edges being where we'd be found out.......

Matty Russell Defensively one on one is worse than Penny.
And position-wise, I'm closer to the correct defensive position at times and I'm stood half way up in the south stand. He wasn't in the right post code for Charnleys try in the Final. but what was so bad about that is he does the same thing twice in the same set of six. Russel first rushed in on tackle 2 or 3 but Sarginson gets tackled but obviously a couple later sarginson gets the kick away behind Matty Russell

oh yeah prone to errors Tom lineham coughed up possession with a knock on and 4 tackles later Charney wins the game for Wigan.

I guess you'd like to blame all that on Penny but he was in stands....
(and probably Closer to Charnley than Matty Russel

)

I'm made up for him, genuine pace a rare quality.

Penny makes more metres per average gain than Lineham which is pretty good considering he's giving him about 4 stone. He has a far, far better rugby brain than Russell although Russell has far more tackle busts, with Penny getting more clean breaks. Penny is also far better under the high ball. None of them are perfect but I'd prefer Penny in the team than not. I think Penny could make a pretty good fullback - that would free up Ratchford to move to centre and play Russell on the wing - everyone's happy!

Let us know if he's found guilty or innocent.

Lineham and Russell are certainly prone to errors, they aren't great wingers by any stretch of the imagination. It's just they're better wingers than Penny which is why he is 29, never cemented himself in the team and no other sl clubs have bothered with him.

He is nearly 30 and people describe him as though he has just burst onto the scene.

You are Tony Smith, and I claim my £5

There is no way on this earth that someone can convince me russell is a better winger than penny.... if the argument is 'well he scoots well from dummy half and makes great meters.... then lets play him as an interchange 9 and leave being a winger to the wingers.