He is a good player. But aren’t we fixing problems that aren’t there? You’d imagine the coach has signed up players for a reason, so unless someone is going from the back row, why invest in that area for a starter? Unless he sees Nicholson as back up, regressing from his starting spot since being with us?

There should be a relatively fixed base, the whole squad is new or re-signed. The starters should, in theory (if we’ve got the recruitment right) be: Dufty, Thewlis, Wrench, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Vaughan, Walker, Dudson, Currie, Nicholson, BLANK.

So instead of filling the blank with an out and out loose, we sign a second row? Are we rebuilding the rebuild already?

Not unless we see Nicholson as a 13 longer term as per NSW’s comments.

We have big gaps in the centre also and ideally I’d like to see a top level prop signed. I’m sure discussions are ongoing with several targets across several positions.

Maybe so, but I wonder what has changed with Nicholson to turn him into a loose since breaking a finger.

Couldn’t care less if we were signing Nathan Cleary,I’d like a new coach and CEO before that.

It won't matter who we sign. Our problem is not lack of quality. We had enough squad quality to comfortably beat Castleford. Thats not the problem.

Couldn't agree more... No point buying more pieces of a Hornby railway... If the feller in charge can't put it together so it doesn't just run off into a dead end!

I watched Nicholson play loose-forward for England
last year & I think he is as much a loose-forward as a second row. I'd have no worries there.

Shame about Whitbread. Seems a great player with a good engine and a good character. Presume his injury must be bad for the club to pull out of a deal. Are we in for him for next year?

Just says Groin injury for Whitbread so not sure how bad it is, but it must be pretty severe for us to pull out of signing him. I assume he'd be out for an extended period for us to back out. Genuinely can't see anyone coming in this year, so think we'll have to make do with what we've got.......which on paper should be nore than enough......but isn't for some reason.
Also don't we need him anyway for next year if we are dead set on a new prop, so shouldn't we sign him anyway. Unless were waiting to see if Wakey get relegated to pick him up for free?

There's no point buying loads of parts to build a high performance car if you don't have a mechanic who's capable of putting them all together and tuning them so they perform to their full potential.

We don't need more bits, we need a better mechanic.