elliott whithead

Rumor on twitter is Whitehead has signed for us .

Tim Lafai been mentioned now .

Both getting on a bit, but would be very good signings.

Oldest coach in the league may as well have the oldest team. I know we need some experience but we don't need a team full of 30+ players

Don't think their is a anything in the Whitehead rumour

Whitehead and Lafai

These signings just compliment our already very young squad.

Walker, Trueman, Fash, Martin, Sutcliffe, Bourouh, Ashworth, Herman are all under 30 and are likely to be in the starting 17 next season. Not including Lane, Cator and Scott who may or may not be here. Some experience in the pack isn’t a bad thing. Add Asiata, Whitehead, Satae to that, with a younger 7 and maybe another winger, that’s a massive upgrade to what we currently have.

One of Whitehead or Bateman, along with already having Ellis at the club, would be huge for the development of Staveley and Jebson.
I think I'd prefer Whitehead because he would only get a 1 year contract which would be enough to steady us next year and add leadership while passing down his knowledge, and then Steveley and Jebson to contend the 2nd row spots after that. Staveley looks SL ready already and Jebson not a million miles off. With an experienced 2nd row along side them both they could both have good careers.

In my view we're going to have to accept that we'll be signing quite a number of solid players on 2 year deals as not many players will move for 1 year deals and we're not an attractive proposition right now.
In 2 years if we've put our house in order and these deals expire then with any luck we can attract some real quality.
Hopefully that will be supplemented by 2 or 3 (or more) of our academy players that have stepped up as quality first teamers.
That seems the realistic route forward to me.