My issue with the halfback partnership is Robinson can do an adequate job at scrum half but not sure about stand off. Brough is a quality scrum half but again could struggle at stand off if he is moved there.

Robinson's main attacking strength is his quick scoot away from the ruck area. Brough is also very good at this being an ex hooker and also possesses a first class kicking game.

What both Brough and Robinson lack is vision with ball in hand and the ability to find a killer pass from second receiver.
While Kevin Brown did not always get it right he did set up a lot of tries with long cut out passes and i do not see any of the current squad with this ability. This may lead the attack to become too predictable no matter how dominant the forwards are.

It may be the best solution in the current squad but (i hope i am proved wrong) it may not be a combination to take the club to the next level.

The overall squad is certainly superior to last season but a key position that for me should have been the number one recruitment area has not been strengthened. I am not blaming anyone for this as i fully appreciate the difficulties involved in recruitment of top quality players it just for me leaves the Giants lacking a cutting edge in attack.

Brown lacked any kind of spark last season though and once it was announced he was off he looked plain disinterested.

It would have been nice to have gotten Gaskell but I think much will depend on winning the ruck and getting quick PTB's. If we do that, more often that not, we will play exciting stuff.

Has anyone looked into the career of Liam Foran the older brother of Kieran Foran the Kiwi halfback? It was reported that Kieran stated that his elder brother Liam is a better player than him.I believe that he is with the N.Z warriors Ukuoma Ta'ai's former club could be worth a look at or, a word about him to Ta'ai.I did read somewhere that he was available but iI could be mistaken.

Brough played quite a bit of last season at stand off- I liked him there- gets a bit more time with ball in hand- but really other than the SH putting the ball in the scrum you can play the halves interchangeably.

could not of put that second sentence any better myself! spot on.

kev brown was injured but carried on playing (required ankle surgery) and was also being played out of position.

stella has made some good points.

Kev Brown was disinterested, EOS. He gave up. Half the team needed surgery. Did Eorl give up? As for the position thing, well, that's a matter of opinion depending on what position he played in given he played centre, stand off and loose forward in his time with us.

I dont agree with you on Brown.

Brown was a very lightweight loose forward playing with a very lightweight pack. He was getting battered week in and week out ( partly because the pack was not able to control the middle of the park). That significantly affected his performances but also had a knock on for the rest of the team. Our backs did so much defending they were being sucked into the middle and then being made to look daft when the ball was thrown out wide.

By the end of the season George, Jerry and everyone else we played on the wings looked crap ( and certainly looked worse than Brown did). In fact did not jerry look so bad he got dropped.

This is the problem with trying to identify who played well and who did not on last seasons form. Because the team was playing so badly everyone tended to look bad whether they were or not.

The only player all season who did not look to be playing badly was Eorl.

Every other player appears to have been mentioned at various times as having a bad season Lunt, Grix, Fergy, Gilly , Patrick, Brough, leroy, Mason .

Were they all bad, are they all bad ( ala Brown) or were they players playing out of position in a bad team who were made to look bad due to some strange decisions by NB.?

Guess it takes all of us to venture an opinion,even though we may get shot down for it,it's what keeps this board alive.

If we didn't,the only thing the lurkers would have left would be to go play with themselves

There is no one person to blame for what happened last season. Injuries took their toll on everyone and everyone made mistakes from the coach downwards. Whilst it may seem nice and convenient to blame all our woes on NB and his selections I am completely convinced that is not the only thing that was going on that stuffed things up. The way KB departed is reason enough to suss that something wasn't right. Cas away; that is what did it for me.

I think it's fair to say that we lack a leader of men and that is a big thing. Players looked to Brown as captain to lead by example or lead with words. He did neither. Was it his fault he was picked as captain? No. I'm not saying he was the only one that gave up either. But he did give up.

Yes Danril there was no one person to blame and what went on behind the scenes may never be revealed but something most certainly did.Rugby players rarely capitulate, the game itself lends itself to integrity and honesty,I would not blame NB for all the woes at the Giants but he may have been able to handle it better along with a few others.

It was a very strange season,it started with NB stating very early we were going mobile because of reduction to interchange,& then seeing us cutting opposition teams apart.

Then it degenerated into farce because our converted props got knackered.NB would have been sacked well before the SF,but was given the chance to get us to Wembley.Some players stopped trying,which I honestly don't recall seeing from any Fartown team in all my years of watching them,some of them made it so obvious.

They are going on about our quality ob's but some of them have read their own publicity,one of the most important aspects of stopping quality attack is to realise the threat,get up and in and stop the danger,They weren't committed enough to that last year,they just liked to carry the ball and show off.