knockersbumpMKII wrote:Those young back up forwards are hopefully going to see some game time, they're going to need to get some more SL experience if they are to progress. Fash looked the pick of the crop last year, hoping Matongo can make strides and a change in attitude of Turgut as he really didn't do it for me and at times he was off the boil and far too niggly.
Such a shame that we will only use a utility forward to back up Houghton, when DH was coming through the ranks he was learning off Berrigan, it would be a real boost for Litten if he could have being used as an interchange for Houghton, he certainly didn't look out of place in the limited time he had but that's not going to happen this year.
All the 3/4 need to be up to the mark because Logan will be wanting to get his centre place back but has said he will be prepared to play on the wing, whilst Talanoa has good go forward he's still slow and an defender, Connor should be in prime position from what we saw last year and Griffin still has some way to go to prove he has what it takes to be a top centre. That was clearly a dilemma last season.
The numbers in themselves are meaningless IMHO, if you're the form player then you should get in the 17, if you're not playing well then the coach should stick to his word and give others a fair go and players should react positively to being dropped/left out.
One question for many will be how will we go without Ellis, I think we'll be just fine though we do need to improve in some areas especially with the home form.
Ellis obviously a big miss but this should be the year we see the best of Dean Hadley.
I would start Hadley and use his defence and have Minichello coming in off the bench for most games.
I hope we dont mess around again with Connor to try and accommodate Griffin.Starting centres if fit have to be Connor and Tuimavave.
If Watts is moved to 13 and Bowden starts with Taylor then we have a good strong bench of of Paea,Green,Minichello and Washbrook/Griffin
I also think Radford may want to limit Taylors game time for the early season games so we may see Watts staring at prop with Washbrook at 13 and Taylor on the bench.
