Wouldn't say Ben Harris was a superb player, he was solid and a good defender playing in a very good team. No pace what so-ever.

Ben Harris was a good solid player. When he went back to Aus (for personal NOT injury reasons ) he resurfaced immediately in Queensland and held down an NRL starting spot in the back row .

My recollection is that he played in the NRL after he left us, rather than going back injured. He was a cracking player imo, superb defence and pretty good with ball in hand. I doubt anyone would say no to someone of his ability.

You can have the most amazing qualities of any human that ever lived as a RL player, but if you are short of pace, there will be many who will never notice them.

In our position we can't sign top internationals. What we do need are good, solid and reliable players who can come in and do exactly what the coach asks of them. And i do believe there are hundreds of players out there playing in so called second grade that are just waiting to be given a chance. And lets be honnest, our league isn't the NRL. A decent player from down under could turn out to be very good here. That doesn't mean this lad will do that. We will have to wait and see and if he does turn out well we will need to extend his stay before others start sniffing round. Shontane and Les were relatively unknown so who knows? It's a gamble but that is all we can afford at this moment.

Shontayne maybe, but I wouldn't say Les was relatively unknown when we signed him.

:1p8fiwhx
To be fair, back in those early days Les was far better known because of the comparison in size with Jonah Lomu, than he was for his own ability and wasn't [i:1p8fiwhxthat[/i a 'liability under the high ball' and generally regarded as a poor defender. I think it's fair to say the Bulls improved that side of his game no end and certainly put him into the international frame as a genuine quality player.

We did sign a few genuine world class players during our glory years, Henry Paul, Joe Vagana and Brad Mackay spring to mind. More recently Steve Menzies was pretty much as good as any second rower around when he signed for us, shame we didn’t have a better side around him.

and an even bigger shame we let him go..

Pace is fine if you have a game plan to make use of it. I used to think I was pretty quick myself but playing union that normally meant being able to retrieve the ball from the next pitch after some dope had kicked it into touch!

The Bulls actually have had some backs in the last few years with some straight line speed, but unfortunately none of the other skills required such as catching and remembering which direction to run in

Pace can be a devastating weapon, if used right, but it's far from the be all and end all, that some seem to suggest. A bloke with a bit of 'nous' will be much improved by the addition of pace but without the 'nous' he's no chance at the higher levels of the game, no matter how fast he is.

Richard Moore released by Leeds, d'ya know. Could do a decent job.

He's a good squad player. While you may not necessarily want him as your first choice, he's a good backup player should you get an injury or two.

I'd take Moore as a back up, got a decent offload in him iirc.

Richard Moore would be an excellent signing. With Carvell and Ferguson on board that would be a massive improvement in the pack.

He's definitely in the first 17 for a mid table team, no disrespect. Before his illness at Wakey he was devastating. He's not had much chance at Leeds.

You wouldn't pick Moore over a fit Scruton, Manuokafoa or Carvell. If we put another prop on the bench (and we don't always, it's often a back rower that can play prop too, like potentially Walker or Winterstein), then it would be between Ben Evans and Adam Sidlow (assuming Evans is still here next year, which signs seem to point that he will be). Is Moore better than Evans or Sidlow? Probably an argument both ways on that I'd say, but Sidlow was showing some good form before his injury last year.

Walker or Winterstein at prop as anything other than a desperate stop gap is the ambition of a bottom 4 side. The discussion about who'd you'd pick in front of who is immaterial owing to injuries. Apparently lots of players played last year carrying knocks and an extra prop takes the weight off and allows a coach to rest players.

Personally, I'd put Moore ahead of Evans and on a par with Scruton and Sidlow.

On a par with Sidlow maybe, but Scruton? No. I can't agree, Scruton was our best prop by a country mile last season and I can't see Moore coming close to making a similar impact.

I'm not one of Moore's detractors, but really? After the season Scruton's just had, He is, beyond any sensible argument, massively superior to Moore. Moore has never approached the sort of standard that Scruton finally demonstrated in 2013.

Agreed, Moore would be a useful backup prop maybe. However I can see him going back to Wakey.

If they lose Poore I would think Wakey are a clear favourite. Unless he moves into coaching, d'ya know.

I take my hat off to Nick for coming back from pure hell of injury and illness but a quick look at the stats suggest emotion might be playing part in this assessment.

Either way it shouldn't be either or. Nas, Carvell, Sidlow, Scrutes, Moore, Evans is bordering on the very handy.

Didn't say it wasn't. Just said that's been the recent trend.




Hence why I said good backup, but not necessarily a first choice.




Sidlow, perhaps. As I said, there's an argument either way as to who's the better prop. Scruton though? Really? Stats don't tell a full story. Watching Scruton last year tells a better one. Numerous people seemed to agree based on the Awards do too.


I'm confused as to why you were disputing my point of him being a good squad player, when you seem to say the same thing by saying it's a good option to avoid putting out injured players. Pretty much what I was saying anyway.

Emotion? You think I have emotions for Scrutes? Well, that's a first!

Nah, I just watched him play most of the games he played, and so don't need to fall back on the numbers, which would probably prove that George Best was a lazy and Jimmy Greaves couldn't defend. Also he was voted the winner of just about everything, so it's not exactly just me either!


I didn't comment on "either - or", though. Of course Moore can do a job, he's just no Scruton.