Need tog et next year's recruitment spot on.
I would sign a centre, a full-back, a half back, two props, a second rower and a hooker at a minimum. Wingers we have cover in Kay, Taufau, Murphy and Kershaw. Need to try and offer Murphy a good deal and tie him down for the next 3 or 4 years. Fullback we've got Max and so need Shaul or someone else. Halfback is the one we need to get right the most. We have Lino and Gaskell who can cover but need a stand off who can start and organise. In losing Walker we've lost a bit of utility so hopefully there's a young half in the academy who can be back up in case of injury crisis. At centre we have Lyne, Croft, Hall. The jury is still out for Croft. He's spent a lot of time injured but has improved the last couple of games. Reece is solid. Gaskell can cover but I'd rather have another specialist centre so we have four which is plenty of cover. At prop we have lost Fifita and Arona. Currently we have Battye, Butler and Bowden. Battye is probably past his peak. Butler is a gamble. Bowden has been solid. We need two decent big props if we play Whitbread at 13 on top of Eseh and Shaw.
Second row we have Pitts, Ashurst and Tanginoa. Fairly solid. If Jay leaves then he will need replacing. I'd probably look at signing a second rower. Hooker we have Bowes and Hood. We should look at signing another so we've got depth but Bowes looks to be developing and could feature more next season.
In terms of young prospects that could potentially come through into the first team squad next year, who do we think? Oli Pratt looks like he could be ready to step up and maybe get a debut at some point from the little I've seen and I believe he can play centre/fullback/wing. This would give us a bit more depth at centre.
Anyone know if we've got any decent young halves in the academy that are expected to come through? It seems to be a position where we have rarely been successful in bringing players through. We've churned out wingers and currently seem to have some good young forwards but halfback has always seemed to allude us.