interesting to see that Sam Powell appears several times on those lists as well.

I have always liked Powell and agree in regard his workrate it is first class. He is also tough and quite often puts his head where others won't. My issue with him though is given how important the 9 is, no player has his hands on the ball more, does he have the genuine quality and craft around the ruck to take us to the level of where we aspire to be.

He has shown glimpses over the seasons but not consistently. Big year for him, but a positive start to it so far.

I don't disagree and I'm a big Powell fan. My issue is the line '"you always need one or two of them in your team". I fully agree that you do btw, but I've seen it used to justify Powell, Isa, Smithies, Singleton, Partington and even Faz & Bateman.

We've got too many of them imo.

There’s no getting away from the fact Powell had a stinker last season. The little things he does so well even fell away (falling off tackles, making errors, his energy looking low etc) but Friday looked the polar opposite. He was busy in everything he did and player with far more tempo and energy then we saw last season. We need the 2020 Sam Powell and that was much more like it.

I think there's a new energy throughout the club and we're seeing that across the board. Although early days, Sam has been far more like his previous best this year so far. More raids from dummy half, crisper passing and generally a greater willingness to take on the line. As NK says, his workrate and defence is back to the levels we have come to expect of him too. He needs to maintain this improvement, of course, but then the same could be said for the whole team, coaches and club.

Powell cam kick effectively out of dummy-half too, something he seems to have started doing again this season.