Are they considered "first choice" in any particular position?

A few thoughts...

Tony won the FB spot off the back of Briscoe being injured. What's sauce for the goose perhaps?

If Motu needs to earn his place back, should washbrook have continued at 6 and Horne been made to earn his place back?

Difficult choice and TBH I imagine that Agar will make the selection based around how he wants the team to play rather than who 'has the shirt' or who may have played a blinder in a single match.

Whats "1st choice"...thought it was a squad....

Point your missing is that Byrne and Motu are both full backs and both pretty good, the one with the jersey currently has performed well enough to keep it.

Washy v Horne, Washy is never a SL 6 and looked very poor in that role. There is no doubt Horne should come back.

If Berrigan was injured and Lee started at 9 with Houghton on the bench and both had absolute blinders i would also argue that Berrigan shouldnt walk back in immediately

To be fair to Washbrook, We had no other option at the time .

Pretty sure Byrne's position of choice in the NRL was Winger before he became more of a utility player.

How do you recommend a player returning from injury earns his place back?

Agreed, wasnt meant to come across as knocking him but thats the way i saw it.

Byrne played centre a fair bit too and covered FB.

A player returning from injury should play 21s to prove their fitness and also wait to capitalise on a slip up by the person playing that role in the first team if they are a natural too.

As per my previous example, Washy playing 6 meant that when R Horne was fit he came back in because Washy wasnt playing well and wasnt a 6.

Byrne playing 1 is playing well and is a 1, therefore Motu must get fit in 21s and wait for Byrne to lose the jersey.

I disagree. Byrne is a utility back. We base some our game play on getting a good kick return, something which Byrne does not offer, so Motu is a pivotal player in the team. Therefore unless he is playing poorly he should go straight back into the team.

Spot on, either way I can't see Motu being fit for Celtic anyway.

The fitness thing is OK I guess, although nowadays getting fit in U21's is kinda pointless because of the huge fitness gap.

The 'wait for a slip up' idea is just plain silly unless you are comparing two identical individuals with identical strengths and weaknesses and identical levels of ability. Byrne and Tony are two different styles of player, so the choice has to be about what the coach wants the FB to do rather than who is making the fewest mistakes.

And Byrne is NOT a 1. He's a utility back who covers the backs and happens to play 1 well.