He was on the wing till the second half Rob, when he's at centre he's been bob on which was you original point.

Quote: getdownmonkeyman "With the possible exception of Peacock, I wouldn't call them stars. If memory serves, hadn't Lauititi been on the outer at the Warriors when Leeds signed him?'" Read what it says about Ali Lauititi on wikipedia "Ali joined the Rhinos in May 2004 from NRL side the New Zealand Warriors on a two and a half year contract. When he was released from his contract with the Warriors it sparked a world wide chase for his signature. However, the Rhinos beat competition from 14 other clubs in Australia and England to secure the second rower." Thats what i call an in demand player. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Lauitiiti

Quote: getdownmonkeyman "With the possible exception of Peacock, I wouldn't call them stars. If memory serves, hadn't Lauititi been on the outer at the Warriors when Leeds signed him?'" Read what it says about Ali Lauititi on wikipedia "Ali joined the Rhinos in May 2004 from NRL side the New Zealand Warriors on a two and a half year contract. When he was released from his contract with the Warriors it sparked a world wide chase for his signature. However, the Rhinos beat competition from 14 other clubs in Australia and England to secure the second rower." Thats what i call an in demand player. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Lauitiiti

I know where he started the game, you asked me to point out the erratic things, you didn`t ask me to comment on his previous games at centre.

Where ever he was on the field it doesn`t forgive his feeble attempt on Danny Tickle which lead to Hull`s second try.

But it was in reference to us needing a right centre as he does erratic thing;s, my point is that when playing at right centre he's been fine.

You obviously believe that we don`t need a right centre to make us into serious contenders for silverware and i do, thats called opinions. My own opinion is that Chris Bridge is a backward step from Martin Gleeson.

Bridge has always been an individual type glory player where greed gets the better of him sometimes, as i pointed out with the Danny Tickle try he was at fault for that with a feeble one arm, attempted shirt grab, ive seen him do similar before.

Does he give me confidence in defence, No. Does he give me the confidence that he will take the right options at centre instead of hanging onto the ball for too long, thats a no as well. Is he a good squad player to have, that would be a yes.

Here is a simple question for anyone to answer, if Chris Bridge is to become our right centre then would this be a step forward from Martin Gleeson ?

If you answer NO then we havn`t strengthened that position, if you answer YES then obviosuly you feel that Chris Bridge will offer more than Martin Gleeson did at right centre and make us stronger in that position.

I`ll start with a NO hence why i said earlier that we need to sign a right centre of equivelant standard to Martin Gleeson or ideally better to make us stronger in that position than we were previsously, having an inferior player in that position who has replaced a high class player isn`t really strengthening.

I will finish with a YES. Martin Gleeson is past it now wheras Chris Bridge is young, talented, strong, pacey & has very good hands. The more game time Chris gets the better he will become with experience. I personally believe he will be a key member of the squad in 2-3 years.

Long time to wait...

You're 100% right, he was on the periphary at the Warriors. He used Leeds, and the SL as a fresh start and a chance to rebuild his reputation. I think the whole 'Michael Jordan of RL' thing as a kid in the NRL didn't help.

Bit mad this Bridge stuff Rob, he was filling in on the wing, totally out of position and he did okay. If he'd had a 'mere from centre, you'd probably have half a point, but his last performance at centre he was sensational, setting up a hat-trick for Chris Hicks, and he hasn't played there since, he's been at stand off, even at Edinburgh, the best work he did, ie, make breaks was done in the 'centres channel' of attack.

As for the passes in touch, behind Hicks, I think you've just made them up ace.

The point I'm making is, he's had a mediocre first 60 mins at Hull on the wing, switched to centre, scored a try. Prior to that, he's looked a class act at centre, yet you seem to be bagging his performances at centre, but odd as the criticism you seem to have, is of his 60 minutes on the wing, unless you thought he was naff at home to Huddersfield at centre, or away at Bradford, when Hicks got another hat-trick. (Granted he was only involved in one of those tries, with great quick hands)

I'm not disputing whether we need a right centre by the way, just wondering where your criticism comes from, as if it's yesterday, I think it's a bit unfair, as he was playing in an unfamiliar position on the wing, and he did what he could, two trysavers too mind, one bad missed tackle granted.

Not really i have been waiting a long time for sucess 2-3 years isnt that long. I could wait that long if it meant silverware. Would be dissapointed to see chris edged out of the squad next season, think he's a real talent.

I knew your defence of HRH Chris Bridge would come at some point, it was just a matter of when Your love for him holds no bounds, does he get flowers on valentines day ?

No matter what anyone says about any of Chris Bridge`s past performances you will always have an answer, i remember you ridiculing some posters in the past who questioned his performances at full back when he went through that spell of dropping most kicks that were put his way along with him being poorly positioned.

What would you be saying now if that was the challenge cup quarter final against Hull KR and we were leading by lets say 18-16 and Chris Bridge did another feeble attempt at a tackle a Hull KR player which lead to a try to knock us out of the cup the same as he did on Danny Tickle ?

It doesn`t matter where on the pitch your playing, your tackling technique remains the same, that attempt to tackle Danny Tickle was simply feeble and lazy. I noticed you failed to answer that point in your above post.

It may not have been poor passes behind Chris Hicks that Bridge made as come to think of it i`m fairly sure they were to Matt King as i remember King a few times having to reach behind him, a few times he just gave up as the ball flew into touch.

Wouldn't we rather we developed our own players rather than just kept signing from outside all the time?

Stick with what we've got, bring lads through the Academy, that will allow us to steady the finances and clear the tax bill.

Didn't that spell only last about 95 SL minutes, in which he scored two tries?

It seems to me your criticism of Bridge is based on a missed tackle on Tickle the other night.