All unsubstantiated comment, though.

True,but not wanting to sound arrogant what other reason would he leave Saints to go to Cas.

Longer contract? Guaranteed first team rugby (which is a quicker route to a material pay rise if you're confident in your ability)?

He almost doubled his wages moving to Cas.

To be fair to him though I think he played twice in the first team and one of those occasions was for 10 minutes against Wigan at the DW when we were slowly losing the game! (Thanks to Foster we held on to a win)

Oh yeah, I don't mean because he was poor, but he couldn't get the chances due to other front row players (although I think he was tauted as back row at first).
Looking back, releasing Fozzard, Hargreaves, Emmit and Johnson all at the same time may have been careless, although this has merely added to the frustration of injuries to senior players, as well as Forster and then the further derailment of the great white hope, Gaz Frodsham. To be honest, I think we should give Frodsham one last roll of his dice before his contract is up.

I've just noted that Ben Davies is OOC at Wigan. The lads at Widnes we're very comlimentary about the time he spent there.

If that was the case he'd still be at Saints Id have thought.

Your correct he was tearing it up in the Championship last year. Great footwork for a prop as well as being pacy, with a great work ethic and highly aggressive. All the things you want to see any prop, let alone a youngster.

Unfortunately he broke his hand at the beginning of this season, and after a reasonable absence he's suffered to replicate last years form. He looks to have put a bit of chub on as well which won't be helping his cause.

A few Wigan's fans would be happy to see him leave. However I'd like to see him kept at Wigan. I think he's shown some good signs when ever I've seen him play. I think it's just a case as it is with all youngsters but particularly young props that he needs to improve his consistency. Plus Wigan need to give him time to develop.

We are defo 100% a specialist prop short next year. We will go with perry and lms as starting props with either TP or laffranchi as the prop/loose role. TP, laffranchi, perry, lms and clough are good players but IMO we need a good, big hard prop.

Clough and laffranchi are backrows by trade and TP ain't really your tough no nonsense prop that will battle his way down the middle.

It's a shame we ain't got a quota spot as west tigers prop Bruce Gibbs would be a revelation in super league.

If you only needed 17 players for a season, I'd be very happy with these. The problem is that as soon as one of those get injured, we all of a sudden look extremely short of weight.
One prop - doesn't have to be a world beater, just solid and heavy - would be a real tonic at the moment. Paul Johnson would be a good target, assuming he didn't take the knock when he left - surely he could be tempted back to play amongst his old team mates, shiny new stadium, first team oppotunities? That's taking for granted that Wakey are shafted as far as SL goes.

PJ was let go for a reason, surely the powers that be have seen something in some of the U20/18. I could imagine that some of those will be getting the opportunity next season. Id rather see us using these kids then bring back a player we released a season before because he was deemed not good enough.

He wouldn't be in the fist choice Saints XVII, he most certainly is at Cas. Being a top 2 prop at a weaker team is worth more to the wallet than being 6th choice at a big club.

It's easy to blame the club for not keeping Emmitt, but in all honesty he's made the right move - more rugby and most probably a fair bit more cash. There was little that Saints could realistically offer him that would make staying at Saints a better career move than leaving for Cas.

Your probably right, I'm just getting giddy. Johnson's obviously worked hard, but his stats don't show anything out of the ordinary in terms of go forward, unlike Emmit.

Wigan have signed Ben Cross until the end of the season. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321

Wigan have signed Ben Cross until the end of the season. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Wigan have signed Ben Cross until the end of the season. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321'" Sheesh, not a bad move. Not sure that you need him, or is feilden out for long? If Perry is out for the season, it would have been good for us. I know he's had his knockers, but certainly in our game at headingly he looked pretty good.

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Wigan have signed Ben Cross until the end of the season. www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_3568321'" Sheesh, not a bad move. Not sure that you need him, or is feilden out for long? If Perry is out for the season, it would have been good for us. I know he's had his knockers, but certainly in our game at headingly he looked pretty good.

We've run at least two props light all season (Fielden and O'Carroll)

Prescotts done a hamstring and Coleys playing on knees that are worse than mine. The games we have struggled this season have been when we have had only three available props, so I guess it's a good short term signing.

Fileden I believe is still four to six weeks away from playing, however hopefully O'Carroll will get a game in the U20's this Saturday, but will he survive it?

What did Feilden do?
For all the talk over the years that he's "burnt out", i seem to remember him having a pretty good injury record.

Knee injury.
And you are correct I think he has only missed about ten games through injury in his time at Wigan prior to this season.

He should have been "good to go" about three weeks back but overdid it in training, trying to push himself a little too much.

He'd have had a lot of game time this season.
IMO he's gone for a short term gain,not a career progression.
I also think Saints could have done more to keep him.

He didn't know that when he made his decision. At the start of the year if you'd asked me our team and bench I'd have said:

Perry
Roby
Graham
Soliola
Flannery
Wilkin

LMS
TP
Clough
Moore

Emmitt wouldn't have got a look in. With Royce playing a back on the bench, even less so.

He made a brave decision, and it's turned out to be the right one for him. Hanging around waiting for injuries and being dropped for big games is no match for playing a leading role as far as career progression is concerned IMO.

He's made a great fist of being a front line prop at Cas and he's got the game time and plaudits that he probably felt he could achieve given the opportunity. That opportunity was unlikely to be with Saints but for injuries.

I think that five main props is what you need, our success in 2006 was based on this being true for us. Next year we will have Laffranchi, Perry, LMS, Clough which probably does leave us one short.

Maggenis is a player that is being converted into a prop but is not physically up to it yet. Puletua has shown that he is best used as a loose forward but does add a lot of size. While Frodsham and Forster have spent most of the season injured.

I think that Saints probably see Forster as the fifth prop. He is a big strong runner who would have probably broken into the team this year had he been fit during our injury crisis. He played in the u20s the other day but I doubt he will be given a run out this year but you never know.

I think we have props on the brain as we have been lacking Clough all year and Perry has only played half his games. With both fit next year and hopefully Forster making his debut our front row should not seem such an issue.

I think you're right, but probably because they have been such a weapon for us over the past 5 years. As I said before, I think a couple of my suggestions were me getting giddy and overthinking.

Assuming the wheels have fallen of Frodsham, I beleive the club must think that someone in the reserves will be able to fill in next year if we need an extra prop. That, or we'll sign someone to fill a gap.

Forster, Magennis, Ashurst, Dixon and Hale all played in your U20 side at Wakefield over the weekend.

And we lost



Ashurst and Dixon aren't good enough and never will be. I still think Magennis could be a useful SL player with a bit more work.

Haven't seen enough of Hale/Forster to form an opinion.

Wigan, noticing they're struggling in a dept, sign a player as cover? Bloody hell, Saints should be looking at this revelatory approach.