Smail's reckons arundel will play centre, although has said crooks could come into the squad as trained with no ill effects yesterday! Personally I'm happy with arundel if it comes to that. Centre for a centre. Whiting for me is a back row only nowadays barring extreme circumstance. This isn't 1.

Problem with that is I think he misses out when Ellis is back, assuming Thompson reverts back to 2nd row.

The 3/4 line looks extremely weak at present, injuries plus lack of confidence really hurting us. There's no genuine pace without Crooks or Lineham (Shaul the only true speedster left) and there is little strike power at all. The binman is doing fine and will get better but all things considered, it's a poor 3/4 line. I think we need Thompson there to give us some genuine threat with ball in hand, someone to engage defenders. It was 'needs must' to put him in the front row but now (to me) its 'needs must' in the back line. I was one of the very few to say he was a good signing at the time and that was based on his earlier stints for Cas on the fringes. I would drop Yeamo in an instant.

Colbon picked up an injury?

Ankle according to Smailes, so it might be Arundel and Crooks (If Crooks passes fit), if not I reckon it will be Whiting and Arnudel.

Agreed.

I don't really think that's what I'd call a problem. Whiting seems to be a consummate professional with a pretty much perfect attitude. If he missed out, I would expect him to react in no other way than to get his head down, improve his form, and get his place back.

That would only benefit us, and is preferable to shuffling the team around to fit him in IMO.

I'd look forward to seeing Arundel up against Hock again, see how he defends against him. He was memorably mauled by him early last year but then much improved in the return game, and he's looked ok this year defensively, too. Give the kid a crack and let him be tested.

i agree with you airliebird about his defending and offloads,but wind him up enough and he is his own worst enemy.

My mate put it well
'he has all the attributes to be the world's best 2nd rower.
From the neck down'!!

Didn't whiting have a stint at centre against bradford and was found wanting in defence?

It's not a problem as such, just I think he'll get left out instead of Tuson, which I don't think is right. Radford's reluctance to use Whiting for any serious amount of time (except his full game as a centre) is baffling. Although given Radford's use of the bench that might not be restricted to Whiting.

Yeah, Purcell made him look a bit silly once or twice. He needs to be in the 17 somewhere though, surely?

Whiting for me is a must for me in the 17 play him off the bench and he can play almost any position asked of him and will always give it a 100% which is more that can be said for some of the players out on the pitch.

It's a toss up between the 2 of them IMO, although they both played big minutes against Widnes & Tuson was the better of the 2. I wouldn't say it would be any more right to drop Tuson instead of Whiting, it's just a very tight judgement call and could go either way.

yeah,it`s a pity the brains missing.