Completely agree. I think some got excited with his apparent speed. No pressure on him from me but I think it’s a bit strange to sign him if Hastings/French didn’t leave given Harry Smith is ready for a prolonged place in the starting team.

I agree it’s not an obvious call on the face of it but we know that little about him, he could be a terrible stand off and be a success on the wing. I’m just saying it’s not madness to consider it. The lad is clearly a flier, far quicker than Williams is and even quicker than Sam was by the looks of it. We knew their strengths and weaknesses inside out, we knew they probably wouldn’t be ideal to cover the wing and were far too important in other positions. We know nowt about this lad and we know we have plenty of halfback options. I just wouldn’t rule it out, simply in the basis that we don’t know much about him other than the fact he’s absolutely rapid.

One of the best coaches in the game moved a half to the wing. If it's good enough for Wayne Bennett

It all seems a bit reminiscent of the signing of Bevan French himself, when the comment was often made, do we need him? Have we signed him without having a position for him? And in the end, to widespread scepticism from fans, myself included, our England full-back was shifted to make room for him. But that worked out pretty well (and plenty of credit is due to Zak there, but that's by the by). Can we likewise find a good solution for Jai Field? We'll soon find out.

I watch all the NRL games and have done so for some years now, so I reckon I've seen Jai Field's entire career thus far.

As I've remarked before, despite being the 'next big thing' at both the Dragons and Eels, he never was a first team regular, and truth to tell, French had a much more substantial career in the NRL than Field has ever managed. Wiki has their weights as abut identical. I don't know about that, but I will say that Field has always looked 'delicate' on the field to me. Like one heavy tackle would break him in half. A feeling I wouldn't have with French, or even, say, Liam Marshall. I would certainly characterise him as a running half. He is quick, there's no dispute about that.

I wish him well, but I hope his signing doesn't mean we end up losing Harry Smith.

That would 100% have happened under Uncle MO, but not under IL.

How many of our youngsters have left and gone on to bigger and better things under his watch?

Spot on.

Bigger and better? I'd say Long, Gilmour and Paul Johnson & I'm not 100% sure if all of those left when Mo was in charge. Maybe Hargreaves too.

There's loads of others who've had good careers, but I wouldn't say going to the likes of Hudds or Hull is going onto bigger things. I'd rather play for a 6th place Wigan than Huddersfield.

You could probably say Robinson and Brown slipped the net, but for different reasons and I’m not sure we were worse off for not managing to keep hold of them.

Exactly. You could probably add Briscoe into the conversation, especially when you look at our FBs between Rads and Sam. That doesn't mean they went on to bigger and better things tho.

None of which were under IL’s watch.

I haven't said that they were?

The question was “how many youngsters have left gone on to bigger and better things under his watch?”. You listed Long, Gilmour and Paul Johnson.

Unless I’ve got misunderstood?

No, I've just misunderstood it. I was taking it that it was implied that it was common place under Mo.

It wasn't "common place" but it happened more than it does now that's for sure