It's a case of who we have fit.
2/3 weeks off Toby and Philbin and Evans coming back in so the bench will look much healthier.

Disappointing that Tony Smith uses the injury card this week and Keiron Cunningham didn't despite Sts being decimated at hb.
Wire need a prop back soon. Let Asiteasy go either way.

But you put /Grix? So is he fit yet? If so then two little guys on the bench goes away. Grix in at 13, then you have Harrison, England, Dwyer and King on the bench which looks better. Whos' actually injured right now? I can't keep track of who's out of favour and who's sidelined.

Edit: Nevermind, you dropped Grixs' name.

I did.
Trying to look too far ahead, I realised what matters is now.
Yes Patton I give the bench spot because he could be the future and we need some cover at halfback because were thin on 3/4 quality.
Dwyer in because we lack quality props and Clark will need a break without a dominant pack to run with, it will be asked to do more defence.

Revisited magic 2014 report wire v saints The teams are more or less the same as in 2015. On paper I'd say saints were the strongest. www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/m ... -st-helens

Revisited magic 2014 report wire v saints The teams are more or less the same as in 2015. On paper I'd say saints were the strongest. www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/m ... -st-helens

Quote ="rubber duckie"Revisited magic 2014 report wire v saints The teams are more or less the same as in 2015. On paper I'd say saints were the strongest. www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/m ... -st-helens'" Exactly duckie, same squad give take a few , it's since agar has arrived the side is not progressing him and TS as a team isn't working!!

Quote ="rubber duckie"Revisited magic 2014 report wire v saints The teams are more or less the same as in 2015. On paper I'd say saints were the strongest. www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/m ... -st-helens'" Exactly duckie, same squad give take a few , it's since agar has arrived the side is not progressing him and TS as a team isn't working!!

Back on thread title

Please God, this must happen

Tonight, Myler has been more anonymous than a grey man, in a grey suit, at a convention for 10,000 grey men. The living endorsement of the phrase " or champagne"

GO'B isn't good enough at this level. Years of evidence (he's 24) proves this.

Patton isn't at the level we need (week in, week out), yet.

So, until we recruit at Half-Back (an ESSENTIALITY) for next season, we need Ratchford and Bridge at 6&7

Never has it been so obvious as tonight either Lefty.
Whoever we have lined up for hb I can't wait for but we have problem that we can fix this season by simply putting our two best most experienced backs together.
Long term answer it possibly isn't but it'll do till November.

Never more was it proved with Clarke's half time "heat map" where PTB's are taken.
All that possession, and 2 tries, against a team who aren't exactly "ripping up trees" themselves

The only way we will get to old trafford this season is if Mr Moran gets the team complimentary tickets for the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand

Ratchford has been great at fullback, by virtue of his agility and the space he is afforded from fullback. Instead of keeping him there, you want him to be moved to scrum half, despite the fact that he isn't known either for his organisational ability nor his kicking game?

YES

I'll have Ratchford at halfback if it means he wont do that stupid immature taking one handed carry that tells the entire world, "look at me I'm running this ball, I'm not passing it because I'm holding it in one hand, if you want to make a one on one steal come and have go I'm fair game, in fact I'll do it under my own sticks to gift you an easy try"

no reason to carry the ball like he does....he would be better with the ball in two hands...and he would create even more doubt in the defenders minds and would be even more devastating.

stop it ....
(in the voice of Mick Morgan) ....you dick 'ead

I'm sure whitehead attacked the ball. When you see the front view you see him Palm the ball out of ratchfords hand.

Shh now, don't talk sense here..

I am a great fan of Ratchford,but he was found wanting at times tonight & the one handed carry needs to be dropped. I thought his positioning to receive Ormesby's pass for Currie's try was excellent.

Ratchford is our best FB. Agreed with no issue.
Ratchford is also our best HB.

At this time HB is our problem not FB, we can cover that with Penny and Russell. Just because Ratchford is our best FB that doesn't mean we ought to ignore the most important position in the team at scrum half?

There's no agenda here, it's just common bloody sense.
If the role of FB was less significant at last years magic, why is it suddenly so important now?
At City Stadium both team personnel were similar, yet Wire had even less props available back then. Clark was in for Monas and Saints had Walsh in at 7. So on paper Saints arguably had the better squad.

So what was the difference? A significant one, Ratchford at 7 and Bridge at 6. We went with a now out of favour FB Russell, at no1 and everything was blooming roses! How much evidence does it take?

I'm fearful of what with happen with our middle channel with our current HB pairing at Huddersfield. Huddersfield with run channels right up the middle and Brough will give them the biggest education in game kicking they have ever had.

Hellooooo!

The halfback partnership of Myler and GOB does not work. How many feckin times.
We've struggled with props for the last 18 months.

Heavens above put the best biggest backs we have the middle of the pitch to balance out this prop weakness.

Were you at the game today???
If you were you would have seen Simms hill England dominate for first 60 mins, but at some point the backs need to spark and take the pressure off,,
Atkins, ormsby myler , Gob might as well have stayed in changing rooms,
We need 1 prop to get rid of big Roy who did 16 mins stint in total ,,

Our backs are shocking at the moment simple,,

The forwards were fine today. The backs were..............not fine

Have you read my posts??
The forwards are fine, the depth of quality isn't fine.
We did well for 60 mins yes, like almost every other game we do well for around 60 mins.
The depth isn't there to get us through 80 mins.

The engines run out of gas so to speak.
So I'll repeat, one need another quality prop, the depth isn't there.

....,so getting back on topic, get the 2 best backs we have at 6 & 7 to balance up the short fall of quality in depth up front.
It work last season before TS broke the partnership up.

So what happened after we stopped usingTHIS world beating combination last year? I've forgotten about the ten match losing run we went on and slid out of the play offs

You half answered your own question.
From memory....
We got knocked out of the CC and duly showed a collapsed in that form for the play offs.

I'll be honest, when TS broke up the partnership a couple of games before the semi v Leeds, I was convinced TS did it on purpose only to add confusion before reuniting them for that match.
I was completely knocked out when that wasn't the case.
I knew before we kicked a ball at Widnes, even though we thrashed them just the month earlier, that we would get beat and go right back to that early season form. I put my feet up, sat back and watched the inevitable happen.

Bridge isn't a half back, and never will be as long as he lives. He's not intelligent enough. The guy lacks common sense.

He's a strong guy who has decent footwork, but that doesn't make a half. If he warrants a place in this team at all, it's at centre, and he's only in at the moment on past glories, as he's been beyond average all year (as bad as Atkins, who is getting flogged on here)

You're argument about getting your most talented players on the ball I can see some logic, but it's about getting them on the ball in the right area, that's a half backs job. Bridge can't do that, it's all or nothing, rocks or diamonds. He's no patience, no control and a limited skill set. Until we sign a half, id try a different type of rugby, just keep it tight and play fast around the ruck. Run from dummy half with lots of support runners. Abandon the pretty rugby and play direct. We don't have enough intelligence to play the wide sweeping attack that we once were so good at.

My point is only about now Babs.
We aren't going to have another halfback if we signing one until next season.

Bridge was a half and signed as a half, (and so was Ben Currie). Regardless of a players best positions now, it's about what to use as an Elastoplast.

I'd sooner see Currie play as a half than Bridge. He has better pass selection and has a bit between his ears.