yeah i would go with that, Houghtons not doing it, on the field for me at the minute!

Houghton has been playing fine imo, it's just that we look better with Berro on the field and I think he needs to play 80. You could argue however that being rested is allowing Berro to be at the top of his game.

yeah, you could be right, still drop him for friday, and see Berro on the pitch for 80 mins, think we lose a lot of direction when Berro goes of

Same for me.

If we have Tansey on the bench, then he could do a short spell at 9 if needed.
I like Houghton, but I think a bench spot needs to be more versatile.

ive noticed in every game this season that when berrigan and omeeley are of the pitch we lose that control and dominance in the middle of the park. id like to see berro play the 80 but if he going to struggle in parts of the game then theres no point in over playing him id rather see him at his best with houghton complementing him but im sure berro has played many games playing the full 80. is the squad listed today?

We have had very noticable flat spells when both Berrigan and O'Meley are off the field. Playing Berrigan for longer spells might not be the answer so not sure what we could do about him but replacing O'Meley with Moa would be a good idea IMHO.

exactly right im not sure overplaying berro is the answer but hopefully when he is fully fit then he might be able to. and certainley we need moa in the team to add some impact that we lose when omeeley goes of to keep the momentum going. hopefully the weather will stay like this and the grounds will be alot harder then agar can play him hahahaha

houghton to play, agar seems to want to go with 2 hookers this year, only injury will change this

minimal changes this week, tansey to the halves, turner the unlucky one as he was effectively tanseys replacement last week

I think it's been a great decision to put Moa in the 20's for first few games...

This kid will be ready to rumble when he makes his 1st team debut this term..

Looking sharper and sharper game by game...

Whiting
Calderwood
Hall
Yeaman
Briscoe
Horne
Tansey
O Meley
Berrigan
Radford
Tickle
Manu
Fitzgibbon

Houghton
Cusack
Lauaki
Dowes

Whiting
Calderwood
Hall
Yeaman
Briscoe
Horne
Tansey
O Meley
Berrigan
Radford
Tickle
Manu
Fitzgibbon

Houghton
Moa
Lauaki
Dowes

A shame to leave Turner out but Tansey is better for now.

How do you know Tansey is better? Turner has shown that he is capable of playing in the halfs whereas Tansey hasn't played there for us yet. If Tansey comes back it should be at full back, otherwise leave him out and let him fight for his place.

I certainly wouldn't like to be picking the team. Personally Tansey has to come it at full back for me. Whiting was very solid in an unfamiliar position but he wasn't "outstanding" like some people are claiming. He looked unsure when the ball was bouncing around and in attack his lack of pace meant he got caught in possession a little too often when the ball should have been moved wide. We look alot better with Tansey there imo, however Whiting has done nothing to warrant being left out of the 17. You could put him on the bench instead of Houghton but what role would he play? We don't want to be spelling Fitzy if we can help it and Lauaki is there for back row cover anyway. Your backs should also play 80 minutes unless they are injured or are having a shocker. If we start with Whiting on the bench we could well just end up bringing him on for the sake of it.

Alot of tough calls for Agar to make.

When Tansey has played and linked up with the halfs in attack he has looked a lot more threatening, I've got nothing against Turner he had a great game last week, I would just prefer Tansey there. Just my opinion of course!