He's prop but played 2nd row due to injuries and he did ok nevertheless.

For a prop to convert to 2nd row at his age is unusual. It's normally the reverse like Morley, Ellis and Peacock and I'm sure they are many others.

Like I say him playing 2nd row leaves us weak at prop and the pack would be unbalanced.

This problem would have been eased if we would have signed another 2nd rower but that is looking unlikely now.

I genuinely thought Lane had signed for Cornwall
His defence is non existent and many times stands with both legs together with his arms flailing as a player runs past him. He seems to run his hands down the body of the attacker.


Cornwall could have used him off the bench

Very big season for him. He started his career with a lot of promise but the last couple of years has gone backwards and as you say his defence has been very poor.

Lane is one of the only players that seems to have gone backwards since Hodgson left, he needs to offer far more this season than running one good line every 10 games

Stronger squads on paper have failed to deliver in previous seasons, the overseas imports are an unknown quantity this season (to me anyway), hoping Okunbur surprises us all and turns out to be an effective line breaking back rower

Smith held back a lot last season on bringing the young players in. I don't think he'll be holding on too much longer if the first team ain't producing the goods and those youngsters are knocking at his door.

A lot of noise about Balmforth pre-season.

I still worry about our back row. But I like the look of the spine in the pivot positions. There looks to be some competition and some versatility in there. But they still need a pack that can open the space for them to play.

I love the optimisim

Nu brown can play loose forward too, could another option be to play him at 13 then have a spine of Walker, Hoy, Trueman, Houghton and Balmforth off the bench?

Beyond 1-17 (which includes Lane, Tindall, and unproven Okunbor) there's only Brown, Walker, Vulikijapani who can't be classed as youngsters. Objectively it's a weak squad, looks like a Wakefield standard one to me.

It's a fresh squad. Lots of much needed size. Injection of younger players. New captain. We gotta be more positive this year. It could go t.ts up but hey we gotta give this fresh team a chance and get behind them.