That's the thing Chase doesn't lead the team around the park like a normal half back, he will set players up and put them through space through riggling his way through gaps and fooling players with the ball, we need a normal no nonsense straight forward half back like dobbo, we missed a player who could take his team around the field and with a good kicking game, Chase is brilliant at what he does its just he can't keep doing the same thing play after play, we need variety and that's mainly why we signed Dobbo.

Great signing if he stays fit

Welcome to the board. Are you pro or anti Allardyce?

Big Sam and Hudge are good mates .....

Bit of both

Sandra likes a bit of both, too.

Tru dat.

I wouldn't say good mates, I was with Neil and Keith Brown (who is a mate of Sam's and the lease holder for Craven Park) when he first met him, Sam was the Bolton manager at the time it was 2005 the day Bolton signed Hidetoshi Nakata, we ambushed the press conference on the pitch, that how I remembered the date, Nice bloke though.

www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-l ... 2dvaj.html

www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-l ... 2dvaj.html

He's in for a shock if he thinks he's facing Warrington on Jan 11th.

I doubt it will happen but I would play Rovers spine for big minutes in all of the friendlies so Dixon, Campese, Kelly and Burke/Donaldson can acclimatise themselves with the play book and forge the necessary bonds in the run up for the league program.

It would be the perfect opportunity for Chester/Poching to run the rule over Campese's fitness and tweak the play book as the various partnerships and linkages are formed.

Campese is the linchpin, he will also be the target of our opponents, so the sooner he gets to grip with the idiosyncrasies of officials and take-outs the better.

I know many people have doubts over Campese's fitness, but he put in a good stint last season and by all accounts is in the best condition for sometime. My concern is how will he cope with our wintry conditions in summer rugby. . . the same goes for Kelly, who is reported a cold-.

Campese has lived his entire life in Quenbeyan.
Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with cold weather, but watching a game in Quenbeyan is the coldest I've ever been in my life. Canberra win games at home as winter sets in just because other teams can't cope with the arctic conditions.
If your summer is colder than a Quenbeyan winter, get the hell out of there, people shouldn't live like that.

Statistically the coldest day on average in the Northern Hemisphere is 13 January. Three weeks later Super League starts up.

Back in the days of 'winter' rugby pre season training took place in the summer months of July & August. Now in the days of 'summer' rugby pre season takes place in the winter months of December & January.

Either way Super League players train or play in temperatures far, far more severe than anything ever experienced in Canberra. BTW our climate here in the UK is very mild compared to North America, goodness you Aussies don't know the half of it.

Proper cold isn't uncomfortable, not nice or a slight morning frost. It hurts bad, real bad the ground is rock hard frozen and Super League players have an occupation which is spent largely outdoors. Pre season starts in November before winter has even begun. I understand Albert Kelly is suffering badly and this is not a severe winter by any means so far.

Summer rugby is one thing but Super League players have the whole of winter and a northern hemisphere spring to endure beforehand.

mildest winter we've had for ages, it's almost been like summer.

It's mainly the wind-chill factor over here, and as His Bobness says the hard cold pitches, and the weather has just started to turn (chaos across the UK as the first snow arrives).

I was talking to Kelly & Blair yesterday and they were nithered (a 'ull expression for effing freezing), warming up for training takes them almost an hour (slight exaggeration) but they were very jovial and looking forward to Portugal next week (more like wishing).

Hopefully Campese will feel at home when he turns up for training this morning; I've got the car engine going to 'de-ice' and warm it up before I set off for work in Leeds, it was -6 last night (I live 18 miles outside of Hull).

The thing is, the cold penetrates and does disrupt training over here even for the 'weathered' home-grown players; its no fun training in the cold, and even less fun playing on below the surface frost-laid pitches, my arthritis is testament to that (well, according to my doctor).