I take it you never saw Mark Reber...

Regardless of the postive/negative stats in each players favour, I'm much more content with Mark Riddell as our starting hooker.



He controls the tempo of the game and his distribution is very good. His awareness around the ruck is of a high standard and selects the right options when it comes to forwards running off both sides of the play the ball.



Whether he's met expectations or not, we now have a starting hooker which I'm happy with. His running game and fitness just need to be tweaked.

Thought he played at SH?



At least he scored some tries...

How on earth anyone can be happy with a player who fails to meet expectations is beyond me. Were you happy with DV? Are you happy with Fielden? If not why are you happy with Riddell? Riddell is here for three seasons and 11 games of one have gone and he won't be getting any quicker.



Dave

Because Riddell isn't performing badly.



The only thing missing from his performances are his running game and fitness.



Mark Riddell's defence, ball distribution, decision making and all round presence is very good and of a much, much higher standard of Micky Higham. Unfortunately, a decent running game does not warrent the no.9 jersey and that's all that Higham offers ahead of Riddell.

Bout time we moved towards more creative 9 play

riddells defence is better than highams go away you fool ,riddells tackelin is 0 tell me how many one on one tackels he makes 0 .hes the worst 9 in the comp by a mile .running from dummy half dont make you a good 9 ,higham can do all of them plus the best kick chase you have ever seen .gb player pal riddell never been caped .your post is a laughing joke higham is better than all 3 of your so called 9s put together

Dont

lmao.

How come its always the muppets who cant spell/type/string a sentence together properly who come on here worshiping Higham, im sure its always the same person

Do you actually speak like this, or have you just popped in on a bad day?

In Tommy and Sam, we have two very good players who never fail to make a contribution. They should both be on for 80 minutes.



In Mark Riddell and Tim Smith, we have two players who have yet to prove they are worth their places. Start one and put the other on the bench if you must.



Then keep the positional changes to a minimum. Even when we have been going well in games this season, there have been unforced substitutions which have done more harm to us than to the opposition, through the confusion caused by shifting players around. Usually, this has been done to accommodate Tim Smith in one of the half-back spots. I'm not sure his efforts so far merit that kind of consideration.



I am reluctant to condemn Smith out of hand, as he seems to have some talent -- mainly smart passing. But the fact is that's not enough for a Super League half-back. In 16 games for Wigan, he has scored a total of four points. I doubt if any half-back in the league has so poor a strike rate, whatever their perceived 'role'.