Tough one really, if Mariano isn't up to it (which it would appear JM thinks he isn't) then in order to maintain our position then we do currently need somone to patch up the backs. Exactly how we expect an eighteen year old whose probably never even been to Craven Park, never mind learned our systems in a little over twenty four hours to achieve this is a bit beyond me.

This lads only 19, if we sign him in a few years time on a mega bucks contract when hes just scored 5 against the Aussies, can we count him as homegrown

Bless you. It's to meet the RFL homegrown quota requirements.

Mariano might play. Charnley has been brought in as 'option'. I'm sceptical about that, I anticipate you will be even more so. There may never be a more obvious time for him to play, that does not necessarily make it an obvious time to play him. The intention will have been to use this very particular set of circumstances (absence of senior club-trained players, rising quota for them) to give some of the 'maybe' youngsters (as opposed 'probables' like Taylor and Watts) a chance to train as pros, that they wouldn't have got at another time or club. A shot to nothing for the club, a chance for them to exceed expectations. Expectation and intent are different - I'm confident that players wll be picked on merit and if any player displays to the coaches he has the ability on the training field, they'd be given a game. We had to include some for whom that was a hope rather than an expectation and some will not exceed that expectation.
The Horne point was me anticipating that you'd use that familiar argument. You've chosen a slight variant on it instead. What is appropriate for one player may not be so for another. At 23, we have to consider the possibility that Mariano is not of the same standard as Tomkins and Myler.

brisco likely to play as he as not pulled up in training and welham shoulder in a very bad way reckon end iof his season.....

Not one mention that I have seen that he has been out on a dual reg this season in National league 1 with Blackpool Panthers (during our win every game spell).

He played a handful of games for us scored tries, kicked goals, defended well and looked up to the battle against some of the bigger boys e.g. Whitehaven's tellytubby prop pack.

I think we're agreeing but spinning it differently. You're saying that Mariano was a very long shot to make it at SL level but the club acted like a charity, a kindly/indulgent benefactor if you will, to allow him to train in the presence of Clint and the Moobster for a year or so (and pay him at the same time - how lovely) to cushion the blow of his not making it at Rovers in the medium term. I'm saying maybe Rovers had to name 7 "first team" homegrown players to comply with minimum quota requirements and listed players they didn't believe would make it but had no one else to name.

That cuts pretty much to the heart of it. We could, in the parliamentary sense, pairhttp://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/pairing/rl