As I posted immediately after the game the thing that impressed me about him was his ability to offload successfully whilst stood up in the tackle. I counted three occasions in a short space of time that he did it and remember whilst being held by Aussie forwards at that. It is an ability that has been sorely lacking in our forwards for some time and I can see Bowen & Co having a field day following his drives.

Quietly impressed with EP think he'll do well.
The Saints new lad I can see being great going forward but suspect the more cleverer hookers will milk a fair few yards out of him.

He'll hate playing against Roby in training and he'll have nightmares about Rob Burrow.

I detect a very different attitude to our signing of Eddy Pettybourne than existed a few weeks ago when I posted the following:-

[iFor the life of me I cannot understand all the doubting Thomas's on here regarding the signing of Pettybourne. Here is a guy who, a little over a year ago, had two NRL clubs fighting for his signature. Previous to that he had been tearing it up for a number of years for one of those clubs. AND HE IS STILL ONLY 25 YEARS OF AGE.
Now the season just ended has not been the best for him, for what reason I do not know. Loss of form, injuries, the calibre of his new team mates or a combination of the three. What I do know is that he has shown he has the ability to shine in a far tougher competition than ours and that he is young enough to recover from any loss of form or injuries. Have the faith. Do you not think that Madge would have warned the club if he thought we were making a duff signing?[/i

In Masoe I think Saints will have another Feka on their hands, with all the pros and cons that go with it.

St Helens bus drivers beware then

Speaking of Feka, will be interesting how he goes at Hull next year, has anyone seen him? Unbelievable difference since he was seen in SL last, he looks like an athletic second rower!

Masoe looks a different level than Feka to me - Saints have made a great buy there.

His performance against Australia was really impressive. Being able to make hard yards AND offload against their pack means he should be a real asset in Super League. I saw him against Wales and against Scotland earlier in the tournamant and was pleasantly surpirised. I thought he would be a second rower and I couldn't see him fitting in to our team, but he looks a real handful who I don't think dropped the ball once, even against the Aussies who paid the USA respect by playing properly at Wrexham. EP came out with reputation enhanced.

SW seems to like props who are mobile and not TOO big. EP fits in well with Taylor, Flower (who also had an excellent tournament even in a beaten team) and Dom Crosby. If these are fit and adding Gil Dudson I think Andy Powell might be spending a lot of time back in South Wales!

He looked ordinary yesterday I thought. He hardly touched the ball when he was on and had little influence on the game. He's played better then that in the tournament though and should do well for them.

How well he does do will depend on his attitude and fitness. If he stays at a similar level to now he'll do well in short bursts. If he thinks superleague is a bit of a holiday for him he could end up a poor piece of business by Saints as his weight will balloon but if he's here to work hard and Saints get him in better shape he could be a sensation.

It's going to be interesting viewing anyway.

EP is Waney's type of forward.
Lots of minutes on the field, vast meters made, few errors and a high tackle rate.
I do think he'll be in the first 17 most weeks.
Who goes out on loan will another matter, hints in today's trade press that we might be loaning players to London.
The Broncos could end up as Wigan "A" which could be a very good thing with most of our 34 man first team squad getting a Super League game each week.
As for EP, his performances for the USA have been impressive and we can all now see why IL & SW signed him.

I wouldn't like to tell Tony Clubb that he's going back out on loan, to London