Leads by example, and is certainly capable of being Captain once SOL calls it a day.

(MM will never be Skipper material for as long as he's got a hole in his a$$)

Farrell's a machine, but sometimes you can see he's going to get penalised for lying on before the ref blows. Needs to get up a fraction earlier. All the forwards did well tbf. Bateman looks like he's going to be a good'un. Flower did some excellent stuff too.

nonsense

Farrell for me has been immense for the last few seasons, and I couldn't be happier about it as my old man always said he was too light and wouldn't make it, to which I argued, height has no issue when you can break the line as often and have a great leg drive and defence as good as his. It's nice to get one up on the old boy for once



But as other have said he has started laying on noticeably longer recently, even when the ref doesn't blow for it, I find myself shouting "get off him!!" after 25% of tackles he makes. Hope he sorts it out as he is consistently one of best performers and would be a shame to blot that with constant spoiling. Perhaps as said above, we rely on him too much and he does far too many minutes?

...would also like to point out, he isn't nearly as slow as getting out the play the ball area as Clubb, that dude just seems cumbersome to me.

Farrell really is a machine and obviously really puts the effort in in training. He does have a problem giving away stupid penalties but no player is perfect and with the sheer amount of work that he does he is always going to give away more than most.

I agree about Faz..tackles for fun, and thats prob why hes sometimes a bit slow getting away from the tackle..hes close to exhaustion and needs a breather imo. I think we might get even more from him if we gave him a 5 minute rest mid second half

When Wire scored the breakaway try Faz and I think Green got back and across to chase him and keep him out wide, thus making the kick difficult. Faz's effort was rewarded when Ratchford missed.

Perhaps the people who think he should be spelled should think again. He is the fittest player at the club, and this one instance illustrates it perfectly.

Reading between the lines of Rads' final blog after the WCC, I think the club have realised they have got their recruitment slightly wrong this year, and it's left us very light in the SR. I presume the original intention was to use Clubb there, but it is now pretty obvious that he is better utilised straight up the middle than outwide, same with Pettybourne and Flower. I'm not sure what the deal is with Hopkins, and even if he does break in to the first team where SW intends to play him.

Our recruitment in this off-season has left us oversubscribed with props and far too short with SRs. Farrell is top quality, Bateman is looking a top signing but is probably playing far more than the club originally wanted him to and there are still massive question marks over Hughes, after that we are left with youngsters waiting for their debuts.

I'm wondering whether or not they'll keep Flower in the back row when Lockers returns. He's been getting through loads of tackles this season so could really shore up that side. Alternatively, if it's felt he's no longer mobile enough to play second row he could defend at loose with Lockers defending at second row. It looks fairly clear to me that neither Hughes nor Clubb fit the bill

i don't think this thread is in any way intended to criticise his talents, we are simply airing our opinions on the amount of needless penalties he seems to giving away of late and some have therefore alluded to a potential fitness issue which is understandable.

Mark Bitcom is certainly earning his money, as we now have props filling in at second row and he is having to get them fitter and faster in a short time scale. As well as bulking up the younger lads to play in there.