Thank you, glad i am not the only one who can see the "local lad" blinkers on many posters on here!!
Kissing badges does not make me a lover of any player

And this coming from someone who reckons Washy should be a 6!!!!!
Anyway, by my reckoning they are both pretty even in most departments ( including pace!!!) but I have yet to see Washy smash the you know what out of a Lesley Vainikolo, as we know Rich can, or have the prescence of mind to predict that Marcus Bai was going to attempt a risky offload, as we know Rich has. Reason enough for me to suggest Rich should be in front of Washy and that the discussions at this time next season will be about Washy's lack of game time and the possibility of him moving on.... Salford or the Crusaders it is then!!!

From memory so forgive me if i miss anything, Washy has played centre, 6,7,9 and 13. How many has Whiting played? i reckon full back, centre, 6, 2nd row or 13. I make that 5 each?

I think this talk of Whiting been smarter comes from the number of interceptions he used to make. What else does/has he done to give that impression? I'm not saying its wrong but i'm interested to know. I've seen Washy do some fantastically clever stuff, for example putting Calderwood in for a try on a couple of occasions last year by taking on the short side.

I wholly disagree about 100% better tackler, you do realise dont you that Washy regularly tops 50 tackles per game and doesnt miss many? Whiting is nowhere near that.

I love the Whiting story about smashing the volcano and how that has migrated over the years!

Funny, i seem to remember it as whiting scooping the volcanos leg up and dumping him. Not much more than that iir.

I agree, he should be a 13. I think he does give better options that most at 6 too though.

Agree with you. And Whiting is a decent utility man who has played a good number of games and does have a decent footballing brain. Like it or not his main strength is his utility value and I'm glad we kept him and released our other 'utilities'.

I like Washbrook but it is now his time to show how good he is. I don't quite concur with those who rave about him. He has plenty of potential but needs an injury free run to establish himself. He has not really knocked on the international door (injuries have not helped) but until he does that he shouldn't be made captain above other senior internationals. I haven't seen the leadership that some are saying he possesses - leadership is something we have badly lacked for 3 seasons and he has played in plenty of games in that time - but anyway I would rather he concentrate on establishing himself and working on his own game. He has plenty to prove yet and I hope he does.

I dont recall many centres making 50 tackles a game but I do recall someone bottling up Vainikolo when he was at his peak, no mean feat in my book. Washy does do a lot of work in all aspects, I just think RW's work has more quality about it and I firmly believe if we saw parity in game time then stats probably wouldn't be much different

Agree with all of that.

Absolutely bang on again Dave. This Whiting rubbish comes from one good season, IMO he's just Graham Horne with a pass! But you know we can't praise any local lads nowadays. Rich is a solid pro with a great work ethic and utility value, no more no less. Washy has the ability to do something creative that can win you games, whiting hasn't.
I'm not saying washy is a great 6 which some seem to think, I just think he's better than Horne there.
I too think it's funny how the whiting/volcano incident has got to Tallis/Hodgson status!

Personally would have Whiting over Washbrook every day of the week.......IMO Whiting offers more and Washbrook hasnt kicked on and looks a bit of a plodder now and he really only has his step off his left foot which teams quickly sussed out........Whiting has a superb footballing brain and should be back up S/O if Hornes form carries on...all in all a much more valuable player to the squad tham Washbrook.

Dont think you can really blame washy for not kicking on, in 2008 he found himself having to play in a new position and trying to guide a team around the park, but still managed to get in some coaches team of the year. 2009 was a non starter really as he was a victim of the injury curse that has haunted our club for 2 years.

No, it really doesn't. Whiting demonstrates pretty much the same qualities every time he plays. That's not to say he never has a bad game or doesn't have shortcomings, but he's a far better utility than Graeme Horne ever managed to be.







In all fairness, Whiting has had precious few chances to demonstrate his creativity due to almost exclusively being played in non-creative roles. It would be interesting to see what he could have produced had he had as many games at either 6 or 13 as Washy, for instance.


Better than Horne was last season, or better than Horne has ever been?