Overseas players - Lammy and Chezzy have opted not to swap like for like and the biggest change will be one less forward, but gain a specialist Fullback. Asiata, Amone and O'Donnell are a big gap to fill, but they played more than half the season without Asiata.

Instead we have Second-row/Prop in Ben Condon and an all-round forward in Issac Liu. Lammy has shown in the 3 years at the club that he does not require 4 props in the squad, and now we have some kind of flexible in the personnel. Personally I would love the Iceman to be a ball-playing Loose, but I fully expect him to appear in the front-row if needed.

Jack Hughes and Matt Davis have shown utility, especially Jack who has played Prop/Second-row/Loose forward/Centre and Stand-Off. Owen Trout is ready to step-up, but the question is have we got any oven ready forwards capable of being thrown into the match day squad. Dan Norman has been reliable without being dynamic, Brogan has been bloodied in a few games. The problem is that looking at the new signings only Brad Martin is ready to join the match-day squad.

If Mat Moylan does retire then I think it would be advisable to use the cap space created to sign an adequate replacement for Tom Amone.
We have played great rugby when either Gas O’Brien or Ben McNamara have been in the halves. Both are skilful, brave and defensively strong.

Aaron Pene was brought in to replace Amone. We shifted Nakubuwai on to bring him in early because it was simpler to get a visa for him this year, or so I read in some reports. We need players like Brogan to step up and show that they are an improvement on Nakubuwai to give us a stronger 17 than we had at the start of this year. Anyone thinking that we can bring in a prop that is at th elevel that Amone reached is living in a dreamworld.

As for the backs, I would expect Towse to challenge McIntosh for his place, and Hodgson will also provide stronger competition across the backline than we've had for the last couple of years. Lack of a good goal kicker is my biggest concern.

I hope we are not still considering signing Milford. He was rubbish in the first test for Samoa and was dropped to eighteenth man for second test. Enough said.

Agree with that.

If I were Ben McNamara, I'd be putting some serious work into my goalkicking and place kicking to show that the last overseas spot doesn't necessarily need to be on a new stand off.