Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 5:29 pm  

post wrote:

From the games I’ve watched him in it looked like he was running in treacle.

Liam Byrne is a very good prospect as a prop, better than Kibula. They are both young, 19 years old, so I wouldn't be dumping either of them yet, especially with it going to U18's academy amd reserve grade next year.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:48 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Liam Byrne is a very good prospect as a prop, better than Kibula. They are both young, 19 years old, so I wouldn't be dumping either of them yet, especially with it going to U18's academy amd reserve grade next year.

Both have some big defensive issues to work on, but Byrne has a great workrate and Kibula has handling ability that few will ever possess. They are the opposite of Ollie Partington, who looks quality in defence but offers very little in attack. Good to have several good forward prospects though, with Smithies and Harry Rushton also looking like they have big futures ahead of them. I just wonder what's happening with Caine Barnes. I rated him as better than Byrne and Kibula and maybe even Partington, but having been on loan for 3 years I've no idea how he's progressed.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:52 pm  

Smithies, Havard and Rushton look the three for me who could be top level players. The first is looking unbelievably comfortable in the first team and whilst the other two probably won’t get there for a while, they’re so dominant at u19’s level they need to move on to reserve rugby or in to the Championship before long.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:29 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Smithies, Havard and Rushton look the three for me who could be top level players. The first is looking unbelievably comfortable in the first team and whilst the other two probably won’t get there for a while, they’re so dominant at u19’s level they need to move on to reserve rugby or in to the Championship before long.

Forgot about Havard. He was impressive for the U19's this afternoon and for me is at a similar level to Sutton at the same age, but much more of an athlete.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 10:16 pm  

Hopefully the return of the reserves will help these young forwards development

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 10:58 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Liam Byrne is a very good prospect as a prop, better than Kibula. They are both young, 19 years old, so I wouldn't be dumping either of them yet, especially with it going to U18's academy amd reserve grade next year.

Kibuka really isn’t first team standard, nor will he ever be.

No point in keeping lads like that at the club in my opinion.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:35 pm  

jonh wrote:

Kibuka really isn’t first team standard, nor will he ever be.

No point in keeping lads like that at the club in my opinion.

I just don’t see that. He’s a kid regardless of his size and he’s certainly no Forsyth or Ganson who had years around the first team to try and stake a claim. This kid might look 35 but he’s 19 years old and I’d be loathed to write somebody off so young. He may not make it and he’s clearly got things to work on but it’s a tough world if we’re writing his development off at 19. Some time of his natural skills are sublime and I’d be giving him at the very least another year or two to make his big break.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:24 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

I just don’t see that. He’s a kid regardless of his size and he’s certainly no Forsyth or Ganson who had years around the first team to try and stake a claim. This kid might look 35 but he’s 19 years old and I’d be loathed to write somebody off so young. He may not make it and he’s clearly got things to work on but it’s a tough world if we’re writing his development off at 19. Some time of his natural skills are sublime and I’d be giving him at the very least another year or two to make his big break.

This is the problem we face, too scared to let lads go so we let them suck up the cap.

Kibula is totally lacking athleticism. He is the defenition of a flat track bully as a kid who simply won’t make it in my opinion as a SL player never mind a player at a club hoping to challenge for honours.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:53 am  

jonh wrote:

This is the problem we face, too scared to let lads go so we let them suck up the cap.

Kibula is totally lacking athleticism. He is the defenition of a flat track bully as a kid who simply won’t make it in my opinion as a SL player never mind a player at a club hoping to challenge for honours.

For me that's the problem with the cap.

You only have a look at a guy like Damien Cool who, at 27, is a relatively late bloomer. The cap/structure over here doesn't let people like that develop late or find their feet outside of their formative years.

I'm not saying Kibula is in the same bracket, but surly sense, logic or even fairness would dictate that if a club develops and invests in a kid from the age of 14+ then they shouldn't have to make a snatch decision on that player at 19.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:14 am  

jonh wrote:

This is the problem we face, too scared to let lads go so we let them suck up the cap.

Kibula is totally lacking athleticism. He is the defenition of a flat track bully as a kid who simply won’t make it in my opinion as a SL player never mind a player at a club hoping to challenge for honours.

How much of the cap is he sucking up? I would hazard a guess of zilch. It's the likes of Clubb and Tautai who are bleeding it dry!