Good luck to him. Good to see young British talent ciming up and making the grade ala Sam.

there's alot of decisions to be made but don't think he will make his mind up until after pre-season. at the moment i think that riley might just miss out just because he can only play one position and hick's has been amazing. monas got to be starting hooker no arguement about that, then higham off the bench as he adds more and can liven it up when he comes off the bench what clarke can't do. wood has to come off the bench as he is great impact, and again change the game when morley and carvell are tiring after the first stint.

I'll personally defend Clarke to the end on this one. Clarke was the ONLY one prepared to chase the kicker on the last tackle and after Brough has stepped him, NO-ONE had bothered to move up in the line. Thats the reason Brough broke through the middle, not because of Clarkes shabby defending.

All Clarkeites should be forced to watch those two errors. It looked lazy against Brough (he just gave up) and just ponderous/woefully out of position against Cunningham.

I'll go with Rob's initial team.

Monaghan has to go back to 9 without question. The three hooker concept hardly ensured we made inroads in those playoffs did it!

Get Myler back at 7, I'm not sure how much the guy did wrong in the first place.

I'll always go with Higham, hardly breaking news. Thought the way he came on against Hudds and looked like the only player capable of winning the game says it all. Before that we were ridiculously flat.

Finally, feel sorry for Riley. Its a harsh call if he were to be left out. But I do understand people's views aswell.

I'd have to defend Clarke a bit in the Hudds example if I'm honest. It was the 'collective' laziness of the starting 13 which chose to continually stand off and invited quick ptb's. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before one of their quicker players walked through us.

As for the Cunningham one, its one of the reasons I'm not a Clarke fan. It was way too easy! The grab technique of his has found him wanting on many occasions.

I'd expect Riley to be taking over Hicks' place in the team by halfway through the season however.

Surely even the most deluded clarke fans want to see monas playing at 9. And unless they are blind they must admit that higham adds more to the team when coming off the bench. Even then they make statements like 'play clarke at LF'. The man's position is hooker and unfortunately for him we have two better ones. It's a bit like the riley conundrum, although he has been excellent we have better options when everyone is fit and he may not get a place.

Realistically where do you guys expect to finish next year? As in where do you see your squad in relation to the rest of the new top 4.

IMO Saints will finish top, Leeds and Wigan fighting it out for 2nd and yourselves fourth. But I wouldn't be suprised at all if you finished in 2nd ahead of us.

Top four again is minimum and I'd be happy with a top four finish given the strength of "the top fours" squads next year.

Do you think you've maybe missed your big chance for winning the league? No doubt you'll be there or thereabouts with Smith as your coach but you had your big recruitment year this year, and with an agein squad its unlikely to be as fortunate with regards to injuries to key players. I think Wigan and Saints will only get stronger (I hope) from here on in and Leeds have just had a very off year.

Not really, we've gone from tenth to third and as Smith has said we're a "work in progress" and will get better and win stuff over the next few years. I'm happy to keep moving up and progressing tiny bits each year, shows the work of a good club. Some will argue we are stronger than last year despite losing Vinnie, Mathers and Penny and recruiting Hodgson and some won't. For me, it's a top four finish then progress further in the Play Offs than we have this year and obviously previous years and hopefully have another decent crack at retaining the Challenge Cup.

I think most Clarke fans (whether deluded or not) do not rate Higham that highly as the nickname "One Trick Mick" appears very appropriate. Clarke's problem is that Monaghan can be so good that it's hard not to start Monaghan, so we even move Monaghan to 7 rather than not picking Clarke. I wonder if, after a full pre-season, Clarke may not start at 9 with Monaghan coming on after 25 minutes or so - and staying on. Clarke then providing later interchange in the back row. Smith will pick Clarke - we know he will - he's done it consistently since Clarke returned from injury.

The better impact hooker out of the two has got to be Higham, surely?