And the fact is, he could have made a hell of a lot more but he crumbles in the tackle.



Tony offers more when he comes into the line. Tony makes more metres when returning the ball. That's why we're missing him.

But he makes mistakes in defence, swings and roundabouts.

So does Byrne.

One in 2 games so far, that's not bad.

What are you counting as a mistake?

In this case for a full back I'd say a missed tackle or a knock on.

There no doubt in my mind that when Motu returns he'll go straight back to FB.



Byrne is good cover but thats all he is, cover.

Absolutely. Motu's carries are very important to us - I think he was third in the Opta stats at the time of his first injury last year. His defence is under-rated too.

Majority on here want the fullback just to be safe, nothing else. Look at all of the English fullbacks, all are decent in defence but offer nothing in attack. I know Byrne is Australian before anyone says

but he plays like an English fullback.

Ah right.



Byrne's missed 1 in 5 tackles. Tony missed 1 in 6 last season.



Byrne's made one 'error' per game. Tony made one every two games.



Which one was defensively dodgy again?

You have to love the myth " Motu Tony cant catch a ball and cant tackle "

That could be IFhe returns the injury is far worse than 1st feared

Noooooooooo





P.S Surely we don't have to turn this thread into a Byrne v Tony??!

Byrne v Tony v Briscoe

winner briscoe

Byrne v Tony v Briscoe v Hall

Byrne v Tony v Briscoe v Hall v Thorman v R.Horne

Just for completeness, Hall missed 1 in 4 tackles last season and made 1.4 errors per game. This is why it's not a "no-brainer" for Agar to include him at FB. I know I'm in a minority of one on here, but I'm not convinced about Hall. That said I'd rather see him at FB with Horne and Thorman in the halves than Thorman at FB and Washy/Horne in the halves.

TBF Hall did play in 17 positions last season.

And was flaky in most of them.

Not playing at fullback mainly, though. There, you have less tackles to make and they're pretty much always one-on-one with time to get into position and with the sole aim of bringing the ball carrier down (usually). That's much different to being at centre (possibly the hardest position to defend in).



(And all that's without taking into account the statistics possibly not being completely reliable, maybe.)

He did play a few games off the bench though so he does have a high error rate - 3rd highest per game of anyone in the competition last year.



Look, I do think Hall is an outstanding attacking talent. I'm just not convinced that he's robust enough in defence or decision-making. Having him as the last line of defence vs a very strong, physical Catalans team doesn't fill me with confidence and I'm not bothered that no one else shares this opinion. Just pointing out that there is evidence to suggest that he's not the next best thing, even though everyone else on here thinks he is.

That's no surprise for someone with his style of attacking game.







I'd have him at fullback ahead of Byrne anyway, so not even 'next best' for me.

Likewise.