I've said it before but I'm firmly in the new regime clean slate camp.



My particular tuppence on Hughes is that he's a young guy that arrived at 23, having been previously loaned out by his parent club. He joined at a time when there was some bad dressing room juju, and things weren't all that great behind the scenes.



While elder players like Sims and Gidley can come into that environment and deal with it, you can't expect Hughes to do the same.



Couple that with practically the whole team being a stinking letdown last year, Hughes was obviously playing with zero confidence.



I'm excited to see how players like him, Lineham, Russel, Brown (yes not the future but still far better than he let on last season) and even Clark go under this new era, as these were all players signed during the latter embers of the Smith era, when things were never quite all there with us. Clark particularly, as we signed him at the beginning of our transition/slide, as the most exciting young British hooker, reigning MOS, and named in the 4 nations team of the tournament. That is unfortunately his pinnacle as things stand.

FINALLY been announced by the club. Not sure why they claimed he was staying when he gained a release weeks ago ? Maybe they now have a successor lined up ?

Maybe its to free up some cap space!

Doubt it’ll free up cap space as wasn’t he on a very low initial wage like the promoted academy lot? At least he gets himself a proper deal in his home country. No big loss, had potential but we can do better as well.

I am losing track of who is signed up and who has left but by my reckoning we have a pool of 24/25 players (excluding Pomeroy, Moran, Prell ). Three of those are fringe players (Johnson, Livett, Smith) so for me we are very light on numbers, particularly when you look at the injury lists we have been sustaining in recent years. A quick scan of 2017 looks to show around 7-9 injured players per week.



We need several more signings.

I don’t think Hughes will be getting a look-in unless he drastically improves out of nowhere.

Where does Harvey fit in?

You can't believe the newspapers.

He tried hard but was hampered by not a lot of pace or size. Wish him well, I won't lose any sleep.

His "undroppable" status may well be tested under Price.

Loose forward would be a good option for me.

Does anyone know where RD has gone ? He seems to have gone missing.