Loiner at large wrote:
I have followed this forum for about 18 months without ever commenting. The posts range from insightful with good analysis to passionate wanting the best for the club to in some cases just purely comical. Having watched rugby at all levels since the late 70s and seen Leeds teams of all standards I have decided to join the discussion and offer some opinions which I should point out are no more valid than anyone else. In terms of the discussion regarding Hurrell the question should be why we didn't try and sign a big south sea forward on marquee money in the first instance. I can't believe we are seriously suggesting that we should ask a centre who we are paying marquee money to play for 20 minutes a game in the back row! We have been here before with Watkins and Delaney.Instead of trying to stick a plaster on things we need to acknowledge the real issue which is that we don't create a go forward platform that allows the half backs to transfer the ball quickly to a centre running into space. It is probably 4 years since a Leeds three-quarter actually received a ball with open field in front of them.In the current world we would be suggesting moving Keith Senior into the back row!If we can get a big prop and high impact bench forward this would help fix the problem. We then need our hooker to be fully tuned in to where Gale wants the ball and we have a chance.I share most peoples concerns about the lack of pace in the back line however pace is no weapon without space to use it in. When we get this right we can question the value of Hurrell the international centre.
Hello and welcome. Definitely some valid points, but I was trying to get at options to improve things with what we have.
Irrelevant discussing what we should have done, and seemingly no new signings in sight. Yes it's poor and annoying re this, but I fear we are struck with what we have for foreseeable future. I also think it's fair to accept that the way we are using our biggest weapon isn't necessarily working out, and changing things up may just be a short term improvement.......
Defensively I just don't see Hurrell as an 80 minute centre. There's some quick and mobile centres in this league, and think they'll exploit our left edge, especially with the way Handley tackled on Sunday!! Comparing Senior to Hurrell is way off as Senior was the best defensive centre in the game. He had it all really....
