Not bagging obrien - and he probably will improve but no matter of time will put him in briers' league. Lee was always class just lacked focus.

Agree with this,Briers is your Alex Higgins, George Best moment. You can not compere O'Brien with Briers, O'Brien will never be as good as Briers, well not in my opinion anyway.But he can be a good player and he is no way the worse we have had in that posistion.

Comparisons drawn between Gareth O'Brien and Lee Briers at the same age are completely and utterly worthless.

Lee Briers never had to cope with the kind of in-your-face defence which demands split-second decision-making in his early twenties.

When he was at Saints there were times when Briers (and Bobbie Goulding) could literally amble through games. You just don't get that in SL these days.

I don't know why I need to keep repeating a truism every observant fan of the game knew going back to the beginnings of the sport but ... a half-back's performance is inherently linked to the effectiveness of his forward pack. It isn't impossible for a scrum half to kick and pass well whilst playing behind a beaten pack - but he's much more likely to execute the gameplan if his forwards are actually going ... erm ... forward.

Of course comparisons can be made you clown stop trying to refer to the immensity of your pack in every post. Feb 22nd seems to have been forgotten. Goulding and briers were quality half backs....obrien is...average.

The early version of Lee Briers was our star man in The most good awful period I have witnessed supporting this club since 1979. his teams have seen the sackings of more coaches than I care to count....

believe me he was no George Best. People really need to understand pre Tony Smith before lauding Briers and dismissing OBrien in the same sentence.

It would be a disgrace if fans got on his back in the same way the best fans in the world got/or are starting to get on penny's back.

Briers never won a thing before he turned thirty yet he played with Langer Gee and Nikau. ..

I think we owe OBrien a serious period of grace. ..

Saints got the best from Briers in his first season. He guided us on his own to the CC final.

Not sure what you did with him after that?

And his reward was being benched when Blobby came back.

Briers knew the score when he first got the call. When Goulding's head was screwed on tight he was a first class player. You'd struggle to find any coach who would have benched Goulding and continued with Briers. Shaun McCrae talked extensively about this (alongside, Briers I might add) at Saints a couple of years back.

But, for argument's sake, let's say Saints continued with Briers and made him their primary playmaker. For a start they'd be forced to put up with the 80% (or less) Briers regularly put into games before he suddenly realised it was time to become an adult. But more importantly, there would be no Sean Long. Now, I do have a good deal of respect for Briers' skill-set. Indeed, in more than one area he was undoubtedly superior to Long. But Long was a born winner. He knew precisely what to do and when to do it when Saints needed it the most.

I do have a lot of sympathy for Briers because ... as he said ... he only ever wanted to play for Saints. Unfortunately he is one of those victims of circumstance that inevitably pop up from time to time in RL.

We have Hill, Harrison (who is in our top 5 players imo, very underrated player), Sims, England, Evans (now long term nijured) and Asotasi...we have NO leading half backs with a good kicking game. We need a decent half back as much as any side needs any player in any position most in the entire league.

I'm quite content to leave O'Brien where he is and let him grow there.

You don't need a world-class halfback to win titles, you need halfbacks that know your teams' structures, plays, strengths and weaknesses.

Chopping and changing and knee-jerk reactions will do nothing to help us in the long run. Let O'Brien have a prolonged period at halfback.

I say leave GOB and look for a world class partner.
A more accurate kicking game and most people in here would be off his back.

Anyone want to argue with this thread now ?

We need 2 new half backs! currently we are not good enough! End of discussion!