What evidence have you got to suggest Tickle will be better ?
I think defensively they will be the same, [sizecheck Westys stats for 2009 when he played 13 for Cas, he made even more tackles that season 699![/size plus he offers more offensively.

Looking forward to seeing Ellis play, think he will end up having a big role next season. Would still start with Horne and Seymour. Horney always does better with an organiser next to him, he is a short kicker and support runner, not a general.

We have half backs and are debating which one we should play! Brilliant!

I think Fitz averaged about 6 -7 more tackles per game then Westerman. They made around the same amount of meters, but Westerman made far more tackle busts then Fitz.

Hopefully we will be far too busy attacking and scoring points, to worry too much about defence.

That's a pretty thin argument. You said Westy isn't a good enough defender to play at 13, but Tickle is. If they are equal defending in the second row, I fail too see what basis you have for your conviction that Tickle would be so much better at 13.

I think what's happened is that you believed Tickle was a superior defender, the stats have shown otherwise, and you're trying to say that what you said isn't what you meant.

By them stats though he only made 8 more tackles than Tickle, missing 10 more! You say he offers more offensively yet he scored 1 less try than Tickle did this year in the 2nd row and only had 4 assists, the same as Tickle. You can interpret stats however you want, they don't tell the full story.

But they are evidence of how Westy performs at 13! you claimed he would not cope up the middle clearly you were wrong!! we have no evidence as to how Tickle would perform at 13, however based on their comparisons at 2nd row I suspect they will be similar.

I base it on me thinking Tickle can handle the bigger workload down the middle. Also Tickle played through the middle a few times when Fitz was injured.

He missed 59 tackles playing through the middle, I wasn't wrong.

Yeah evidence of how he performs through the middle, he assists in as many tries as Tickle does playing 2nd row.

Tickle played through the middle when Fitz was injured last season, so I'll take my basis for opinion from that, thanks.

You claim he missed 59 tackles playing 13 in 2009 compared to Tickle in 20011!

In 2009 Westy missed 59 tackles...Tickle missed 92..

Give it up mate

Ah. That's where you're going wrong.

So in summary, our new signing, Championship player of the year and young player of the year with 34 tries says some positive things. Cue 22 pages of arguing about Richard Horne and Joe Westerman. Moaning feckers.