: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:38 am  

Unfortunately for Newton, hookers have evolved somewhat in recent years. He now has the 'appearance' of a prop forward whereas hookers are becoming more nimble and agile. Look at Randall, Roby, McIlorum. I think Rinaldi does a great job from dummy half, and whilst Newton has his moments of magic, they're few and far between.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:15 am  

Not sure how you can say the intercept wasn't a big turning point. If I remember correctly the scores were 34 all and we had the ascendancy. It was a nonsense pass and it proved very costly, obviously it wasn't the only reason we lost but it was a big play in the match.

Like I say, I rate Newton as a decent hooker but he isn't international class and he is replaceable. It seems fairly certain he is moving on, so it will be interesting to see who comes in to replace him.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:40 am  

Duckman wrote:

This is why we need the productive junior system so much, we need to fill a SL squad with enough quality and experience to compete, spliting a finite cap amoungst our first team squad made up mainly of players brought in, often older/more experienced players who command a certain level of wage, or "signings of this type" as you put it.

Whereas someone like Leeds for example can put youngsters like Hall on the wing and he's got the quailty to be top try scorer and he's taking up cap space possibly half that of Sheriffe (likely to change when they upgrade his youngsters contract mind!) Spending less on home grown players like Hall and others to fill out the first team squad allows them to spend more on their marque signings and so the squad as a whole looks to be better value for the cap money as the quality of players like Hall dosent match the cap allocated, the same can be said for other teams with productive youth systems - Saints and wigan are also good at this, which is why ours needs (and seems to be getting) serious attention, but not to the extreme detriment of the first team.

With all that unasked for rant out of the way, I'd still take Evans next year with Nero whilst we develop our own Centre talent, and I suspect he would be available too.

A very poor example of coaching though. They leave him on there all match. Think how good he'd be if he had two seasons experience of playing 4 mins every 6 or 7 games.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:10 am  

rugbyreddog wrote:

A very poor example of coaching though. They leave him on there all match. Think how good he'd be if he had two seasons experience of playing 4 mins every 6 or 7 games.

Leeds definately need to pay more attention to the way we approach first team affairs and bringing through the kids. The sooner they are more like us the better I say.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:45 am  

Leeds are also much more sucessful at developing backs than we are. Our best young players are forwards. They havent fully developed yet. Its fairly clear watching the likes of Whitehead and Donaldson that they've stiull got a lot of growing to do.

A promising young winger can be given 80mins game time without the worry of burning them out or exposing their weaknesses too easily. Cant do the same as easily with a forward.

: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:21 am  

rugbyreddog wrote:

A very poor example of coaching though. They leave him on there all match. Think how good he'd be if he had two seasons experience of playing 4 mins every 6 or 7 games.

I don't what it is, but alot of the youngsters we bring through just seem to slot in. Myabe because we have a good stable team it's easier for them to come through.

But we didn't exactly have that when burrow sinfield and the like came in.

Hall made his debut in 07, he had a decent run last season including a grand final and now he's top try scorer.

Lee smith made his debut in 2005 made some mistakes against your truly when you beat is at headingly.

Fast forward 2 seasons and he's MOM in the grand final.

At leeds young players make their debut, then they play abit more regular............and then they become quality.

See kalum watkins, he only recently started to play in the first team. Watch what happens with him in 2 seasons.

Don't know why it is, it just is.