At least we've got a coach with experience of getting large groups of players together quickly. Potter's experience with Catalans should help us integrate all these new signings.

I'm still not convinced we have the quality or cover necessary at halfback but elsewhere the squad looks fine to me.

Exactly where I am too. Herbert I can give the benefit of the doubt, as I honestly don't know how good or bad he is. Kearney is a decent halfback without ever going to be a world beater there. After that, we're looking at young lads or out of position players. The thought of Sykes at 6 again really doesn't fill me with any confidence at all.

It's a shame we haven't got the same depth in the halves that we have everywhere else.

When Kearney played S/O with orford he looked good and its got to be remembered that its difficult for a HB to look good with no weapons. Whilst he is almost certainly a better FB, this is because he had played more time there.

With the cover at FB, he isnt a bad option and will provide a pacy partnership with herbert (v good player who was 1st choice at Canberra at the start of last year). Obv injuries are the concern if we dont make a signing but im lead to believe Leon is still a distinct possibility.

RE Hall, the bulls are certainly looking to offload and that is why hood didnt rule out monaghan even without the quota spot. both his and waggas salary expectations are causing a hold up at the minute i believe

Kearney is more of a runner than an organiser and doesn't have any kicking game to speak of. A lot of pressure will be on Herbert. I expect we'll see a lot more of Southernwood in 2011 too. Hope he's putting some bulk on this close season.

I would expect we'd have an idea soonish of the Squad anyway, as now that the new kits are out, it would make sense to get the squad numbers out fairly soon. Purely because until they're out, the shop are potentially losing money on shirt printing (which at £15 a pop, has to be fairly profitable). That's certainly the main reason behind Wire & Saints releasing their numbers already.

Also RE signing, Hood has stated we will spend our full cap this year, and this was a major reason for Potter agreeing to join. As such, there is space from worrincy, sculthorpe and almost certainly huge room from orford. that should be 2 v good players without hall and godwin being shipped out.

I fear we spend the full amount, but if this is the case, we really should be targetting a world class centre for 2012.

That's assuming though that the Orford money hasn't already been spent, since they will may have known for longer than announced that he wasn't coming back.

Same with Sculthorpe, it's difficult to know how long it's actually been known about that he was going.

In both those cases, that money could have already been reallocated to the likes of Diskin & Herbert.

If we go into the season with Herbert, Kearney, Southernwood and Sykes as our options at half I'll be fairly peed off to be honest.

OK - you can't wave a magic wand and bring in players that, a, don't want to come, or, b, the club they are at does not want to release them.

Orford hasn't helped the situation. However, at the looks of it, the club had a very good idea that Orford wanted ofski's and it was very apparent that halfback was where we were very light last year. So at the minute we've got a lesser player to replace Orford (and let's be honest - he will not be as good as Orford could be) and still have no real cover other than players playing out of position and a young lad that the club openly admit to not being ready for a long stint in the first team.

Let's hope all we are waiting for is a pay-off re Orford and we can re-invest this in another half-back. If the worst does happen and Orfords future club won't pay up, it sounds plausible that we can't play Herbert until Orford is officially no longer a Bull. Orford gets away for nothing unless we force the bloke to come back, which then leaves Herbert out in the cold.

Plenty of time to resolve things, but personally I think there will be a few twists and turns yet that might not be to our liking......

I bet Royston could provide cover at 6. Not wonderfully so but in a similar style to kearney.

We have options but not many of them are proper halfbacks. I was told by sources close (albeit a few months back) that Sykes will not be playing No6 for us again.

There was also a tweet on Platt's twitter about there being no stand off too.

As for the Godwin/Olbison/Hall/Chase rumour that sounds like bobbins.

there have been talks re hall and godwin but i heard they were seperate ie not to get chase. agree that sykes isnt really an option there but:

Herbert is an out and out half back we couldnt really expext anything better (only finch imo could be seen as a HB that has moved who is better)
Kearney can play S/O and be dangerous but needs an organiser and weapons outwide
You need the opportunity for Southernwood to come through and he should have added to his frame this year

It is likely that Pryce will join, but failing that it isnt the end of the world. the obvious concern is that herbert is on a 1yr deal and we could be left with nothing for 2012 without a signing.

don't buy that one if that email i pointed out in T&A was anything like correct then we wouldnt be able to register players signed using orfords wage until his release is finalised and afaik the only player not fully registered is herbert. Plus club were talking 2-4 more players depending on whether Orford came back or not. we've since signed 2 and released scully and worrincy on top of that. Im certain we have cap space for more signings, whether theres anyone worth signing in a position we need is potentially the problem I feel.

hall is very important imo, im assuming he is on a very good deal and takes up a quota. if we can get shut, even if we use some of scullys ££ to pay him off, we can look at monaghan and will certainly be in a stronger position re orford as we wont need him off the quota.

Herbert a lesser player than Orford? Dunno, to be honest. Fair enough he's not a Dally M winner, and he doesn't have the reputation of Orford but on the positive side he's younger and is a guy who maybe has a point to prove, and there is no real reason why he can't be very effective for us. In any case, above all he's a willing recruit who actually [iwants[/i to play, so that is a bonus.

It might have been more accurate to say that he [imight[/i not be as good as Orford could have been, rather than [iwon't[/i be, though obviously we'll never know just how good Orford might have been. At the end of the day, Orford left us up the proverbial without a means of propulsion, so in the circumstances, I'm happy enough with the scrum half situation. Let's just get the no.6 problem sorted and we're ready to rock and roll.

am i the only one thinking we are missing a quality centre massively

you must have forgot about platt

lol. i actually think platt can do a job but the centres just dont fill me with excitement. if walker is fit then he will be a good addition and i do rate sykes at centre, but we dont seem to have much flair. not sure if the nz lad will bring this at centre but it would be nice to see some of the cap space used on the flair postions.

To be honest, I would assume that e-mail is complete and total b0llocks. As if anyone in that position at the club would just tell someone that in an e-mail. Would only happen to someone who was completely trustworthy, which considering it was posted on the T&A Forum, that suggests this person wasn't.

I tend to agree about the email. But at the same time I dont think we're anything like at the salary cap yet and we just cant make anymore signings until Orford situation is finalised. maybe its just as simple as we need compo from orford deal to pay transfer fees.

here's one for yer

Shame we've already seen that spoof thingie loads of times - although maybe just as well cos otherwise you'd see collective apoplexy on here!!

Best day's work you guys did getting shot of him, I reckon.

Nice avatar!!!

Blimey Adey can't you sleep?? Anyways Mickey G got his hands slapped by the mods for his ref spoof using same avatar! Rumour has it Cooke is on his way to Sheddlingly cause Kath still likes him!

Would it be a help or hindrance to let Southernwood develop by playing him at 6? Genuine question - I'm not entirely sure whether it would harm a scrum-halfs game to fill in at 6 or...not.

There seems a logic to it but considering I can't think of it ever happening perhaps its actually a stupid idea.

I hope we see a lot more of Southernwood next year. He has the skills. It's just a case of making sure we don't burn him out or put him in harms way if he's still on the small side.

Hopefully he's been really hitting the gym and will be physically prepared to play a much bigger part.

depends on his natural game stlye and ability I imagine.
Is Tomkins not naturally a 7??if it gets him game time could be constructive but if he is just not ready we will still need to be patient, heard a few people mention that cain can play 6 anyway as his better position but how true I am unsure