I think you're bigging him up a bit too much there. He wasn't that good. Fairly nasty person who liked to put in a few fairly borderline shots throughout his short career at the club. Not a particularly great player - personally I would rather have a player of Purdham's class and quality in the team than an average second rower who liked a fight.

I prefer Purdham, but Williams gave us a bit of an edge that we lack at the moment, a bit of nasty can be useful.

I agree, Williams as a player though offers nothing more than Wilkes would do though, probably even less. I'd rather have my "nasty" bloke in the front row too.

agreed.
As I have said elsewhere, a couple of mongrels in the front row and sod the taps!

We have BMc, sod the taps anyway,

Every team needs a Danny Williams character, maybe not as extreme as he was but certainly on that spectrum. Our lack of that is significant. Of course Purdham is better pound-for-pound player but it isn't a choice between one or the other - effective teams are all about having the right mix, and an aggressive player is a key part of that.

On the wider point, team cultures are important and the captain's role is key. I'm not sure Purdham is vocal or outgoing enough - that leaves a vacuum, and micro-cultures can breed in the gaps... and could well be part of our "team" issues?

Don't think Purdham should be captain either it needs someone with more presence.

Pity he chose a woman over what could have been a decent career.



You need a balanced team though, Danny was the grunt to Rob's class, both worked very well together, neither looked at home on their own. Mind we still haven't replace Lee Hopkins in the pack for me, I'd love to have seen him play behind LMS for longer.

Good point, and apparently Hoppo was good for cohesion off the pitch too.

I'm not denying we need a balanced team and a bit of grunt, just giving my opinion on Williams, nothing more!

I completely agree with regards to Purdham, should take the captaincy off him and give it to A.N.Other who will join the club in the summer

It seems to me that there is a rift in the dressing room - a Purdham camp and Aussie camp. The Facebook stuff would back that up. That would explain a lot - especially when you take in the Welsi comment of a few weeks ago when he said something like - we had a problem and we talked it through. It is Brian's job to sort it out.

So we let the Aussie control the changing room and off and on the field? player power!

It is bad enough having to listen to the gloating Aussie commentator on Five Live Sports Xtra with the cricket.

Purdham is a model player and a great ambassador on and off the field, if some of the moaners would raise their personal game as much as Rob does we may have won more games.

Right....I would suspect that next week the players still contracted will have some sort of "winding down" sessions. I would honestly suggest that Mac uses this time to bang peoples heads together. Paint balling, snooker, strip bars...I don't care, but get this sorted NOW or we will just have a 2 month gap before pre season where stuff will just fester......get it sorted or have a clear out!
We are going to lose a point for competativeness next time around and unless the new marketing team can find 1,600 a game, not gain one on attendances, so we need to finish 6th or above or we will be 1 point down on last time..... not good.