Disagree on Cockayne, never saw much of him before and was against his signing at the time but I thought he was brilliant for us.

Shane Kenward was great, then got squeezed out.

I never saw much of him! Especially out on that wing spot when the opposition were walking tries in.

Me too

James Stosic - never heard of him before he came to Trin, great bit of business to bring him over. Not very tall, but incredibly wide like Kurt Sorenson and Les Boyd! Pity his visa wasn't stamped the season after....

I really rated Stosic, a steady player who worked hard and gave good go forward. His ability to regularly find his front was great!

He’s definitely the kind we should look for.

We will often be on the back foot in big games, we need a resilient pack with a great work rate rather than a fancy one.

I believe with our backs if we can hold the line in a game we can go on to win it, but then that is basic RL.

I agree, and I think players like Stosic would thrive in this era. He was good for us in 2009 but he’d be a sought after player now. He’s in the mould of current Props. Good completion with little errors, can tackle, keeps going at 100% whatever the scoreboard and can find his front for easy PTB’s.

He was one of the best import forwards we’ve had in the last 20 years imo, I’d love to have seen him partnered by Adam Watene they’d have been a great starting front row.

For all I loved Fifita and would still sign him purely as a game breaker, technically he wasn’t a great prop. A coaches nightmare and dream all in one. His PTB was poor, he didn’t run direct when he should have done on many occasions and so on.

This is not a hatchet job just being honest, but Daves strong points far outweighed his weak points. What I’m suggesting is trying to replace a maverick one off like Dave is folly, or at least for now, we need tough, no nonsense, resilient workers.

Applegarth made no bones about it, hard direct forward play, with great defence from 1-13. When we’ve stopped the opposition we then attack out wide. Basic but still the best game plan ever devised imho.

Your Stosics give you that platform, we have two in Whitbread and Battye if he’d just concentrate on being a prop, Bowden looks similar. So this guy or similar will do fine.

Hang on a minute, when I called Applegarths coaching method basic a few weeks ago and long before he was given the HC job you amongst others went out of your way to criticise me even though much of my post was positive. Now it’s OK to call his coaching basic is it?

By the way Battye isn’t fit to lace Stosics boots, they are in no way similar at all!

If Fifita makes more average metres than mist other props ( certainly more than ours) why does it matter if he doesn't run straight. Only a fool runs straight at defenders if you can run at gaps.
But he's a one off so I agree you can't swap like for like.

And as said, Whitbread isn't a bad comparison to Stosic, but Battye isn't the same quality at all.

Jeez I knew you’d do this. It doesn’t matter really but no player is perfect. If you actually listen to the Fifita podcast he stated this himself and that he can’t help himself and he wished he could but his centres instinct never left him.

What it did was push him out wider on being tackled than he intended as he was naturally off balance on occasions.

Why is is it such an issue to talk about players failings. The nearest I Evers saw to a perfect player was Hanley and they are once in a generation.

I never said Battye up to Stocics standard but he plays for us and both Fifita and Stosic don’t. I actuallysaid he could be effective if he stuck to just propping.

Not sure why the sudden petty pedantry, but it might be worth reading what I actually put, still if it makes you happy knock yourself out. Not generally your style all the same.

I don't understand why you can't follow your own conversation without throwing a tantrum. Are you not wanting a reply? Surely that's the best compliment I can give you.

I'm not sure why it's pedantic to say I don't agree with this statement "Technically he wasn't a good prop".
I don't agree. You'll live don't worry. It's just one of those things that happens when you share your opinion on a forum.

If my replies have slightly changed recently i havent done it consciously. The only thing I can think is that your overly positive comments just seem silly to me. (Last season you were inconsolable after the Cas game and everything was terrible)
I am a naturally positive person as has been said and cricised on here many many times so I welcome that, but when I do I absolutely believe what I write and back it up with a reason. I'm not always right and admit when I'm not.

But after calling Applegarth a legend you are now saying he has "the best game plan ever devised".
It's great to be a cheer leader and you can say what you like I guess but I find it a bit cringe.