Fil:

Whilst I am delighted we are bringing a quality player such as Smoothy in, I have to feel for Liam Hood as IMO he is in the form of his life and thoroughly deserves at least one more year on his contract. How many tries has he either scored or set-up so far this year.???...quite a few, I dare say.
Of course that would mean that we would have 4 hookers vying for a first team spot and Doyle and Smith realistically would struggle to get in. 

upthetrin92:



Smith is still very young and still has a lot to learn. Learning behind hood and Smoothy wouldn't do him any harm. 

Would he be getting game time now if Doyle was fit? he has performed well so fair play to him now he's had a chance. 


I would be fine with Hood signing for another year. Doyle could be moulded into a 13. 

As for Smith, I expected he would play 5-7 games or so this season but he’s performing very well and he’s improving as games go. Doyle is probably now the player who has to fight for the shirt back off Smith. 


If Doyle was fit I reckon Smith would’ve played more for Batley but Smith looks the part. I’ve been impressed with his tenacious defensive efforts against opposition forwards. It’s clear Smith has worked on his physicality and he looks to have put a few kilos on but still have that quickness. 


Smith will be Englands 9 in the future I have no doubt. 

The Avenger:

If it’s Smoothy for Walmsley then I’m OK with that, no disrespect to Walmsley because he’s done exactly what he’s meant to and hasn’t let anyone down. I’ve said before, I wouldn’t use an overseas quota place on a winger unless it was Eric Grothe, Lesley Vainikolo or someone of that ability.


I don’t think Amone will be coming our way however also I’m pretty happy with our front row options and when Storton & Nikotimo are fit we’ve got strength in depth in both second row and prop forward.
PROPS: McMeeken, Uele, Atoni, Rodwell, Fa’atili, Storton, Shaw, Lingard
SECOND ROW: Vangana, Griffin, Storton, Nikotimo, Croft, Scott


If we were to look overseas for a top class half back then we would have a tough decision on one of our current overseas players. Could we afford to let one of the Props go? Certainly not Uele or Rodwell, probably not Atoni which only leaves Fa’atili and it would be very harsh on him.


The other option is Lino, but he’s played well alongside Trueman this season, again it would be harsh but he’s the only other overseas player you could consider. The club has shown it will be ruthless if they need to release a player as with Bain last year and if we are to keep evolving, improving then these decisions will happen


Think you are a bit unfair on Lino there, he as played well without Trueman  .We may get rid of Lino if we do bring do bring in a oversea player .in .Sorry and will get shot down for it ,but waiting for Trueman to put a string of 6 or 7 games together ..Any team can not play to there full potential if your halfs are been changed every other week 

Trojan Horse:

How did my pos  t end up in a quote…..

upthetrin92:



No idea what happened there  this site hasnt been the same in the last few weeks

but I saw your post agree about Doyle having to worry about him getting that shirt back from Smith. With Smith, because he is still so young you don't want to burn him out, but you want him to gain that first team experience. Like you say him having to defend against the big boys in the middle, although he's stood up well in defence when teams have gone after him.