Quote: alegend "We have 3 good attacking player's in the team at present Jowitt,Walmsley and Lino. Toulouse new this gave them no room.As a attacking force Gale and Hood are way past there best ,Thornley is none existent . Pratt looks like he could make it to S L dispite bombing a try chasing a great kick across the French line in the first half. Think Lino gets a lot of unfair stick on here and out plays Gale most week, Some of the high kicks Lino did in the second half were pinning the French teams on there line. With out Gale in the team last week Lino stepped up and ran the second half Powells words not mine with a inexperience spine I Would give Kay more time at 9 and get Rocky here on loan from Wigan By the way the food in hospitality was very good'"
Couldn’t disagree more with most of that. We obviously have very different things we see in games and opinions on players performances.
An inexperienced spine composed of - a fullback with 100 + SL games, 2 x half backs of. Combined hundreds of SL games, a 9 with plenty of SL experience and top championship experience, and a 13 who has had a very long career in SL? How is that inexperienced spine
Lino had a good game last week but they are not consistent. Though I hope he will find that this year.
Thornley has been bringing some big metres and carries out from deep on that right edge and defensively makes very good decisions. Like this game the right edge set plays are breaking down regularly and that needs to be looked at but the ball seldom goes further than Lino who takes it to the line and either jinks back in, passes short to Griffin or passes to the floor or behind the outside backs (both happened this weeks game).
As for Kay at 9, he’s a utility player and while he’s ok at 9 he’s definitely not better than Hood or Doyle there. I would also rather see Smith get game time there before Kay who will likely be in his final season with us. Kay came on and made some positive contributions yesterday but was poor at Batley. If he plays at 13 he should be coming off the bench like he did today when teams start to feel their legs a bit.
With Gale it’s obvious he’s not in his prime but overall he’s doing a pretty solid job so far this season. I do think we should be looking at next year though but that appears to be Russell. Lawford will come in if Gale gets injured but Hampshire is an option but I suspect we will see that if Jowitt gets injured with no back up full back.