He'll say whatever they tell him to say. He's not going to come out and say "Yeah, we hate it here, we want to go back" and face abuse whenever he nips to the Spar.

I suspect the announcement of Widdop leaving will be linked to the announcement of his replacement. The rumours in Aus have you making a firm offer to Benji Marshall. Why would you do that if you weren't losing one of your halves?

It's Warrington, if a mid 30s NRL player on a big salary is available we'll be in for him, we can always move other players out of position if needs be. Widdop could play fullback.

You should prepare your lines to take to wind people on here up for if we sign him now.

I would suggest something like:
"Certainly an interesting signing and will bring great publicity for the game, but he's been a declining force in the NRL for some time now and wouldn't have found another club in the NRL so I don't blame him for seeking a big pay day at Warrington. Really interesting how Warrington have fit him under the salary cap, will we see his wife working at the club shop?"

You don't get how agents in Australia work, do you?

Simply, they use Wire as leverage to get their players a new contract - we are the biggest spending UK side and so they immediately use our name to whip up a rumour. No doubt we are always the first SL side that gets offered these bigger name NRL players for the big, final payday too.

If we had signed every NRL player linked to us during the last decade, we would never had to play a single UK born player.

From what I've heard Widdop is definitley off next season. Benji is one of my favourite players of all time but I'd sooner go out and splash the cash for Trueman at Cas than have Benji for one year.

Didn't we sign Daryl Clark and then leave him at Cas for a year before he came?

Could do the same with Trueman?

I agree we’ve already got Inglis on a short term deal. Would rather have a long term partner for Austin who can step up when he moves on.

I take it you haven't seen that much of Benji in recent times? A steady away organising half is exactly what Benji is now, he has completely re-invented himself from his younger days and has done it very well. He does a good job at controlling a game and has a decent kicking game both long and short.

Personally I'd love to see one of our homegrown half backs come in alongside Austin at half back or at least be utilised more depending on where Stef plays rather than Trueman

Yeah I haven’t seen him play a lot recently to be fair. Sounds like he fits the bill but would obviously prefer to keep Widdop!

If he is off then i'd be very happy with Benji for a year, as same as you he's one of my all time favourite players. But yeah we definately need to invest long term, but i very much doubt Cas would let Trueman go.
I'm still shocked that Wests would let Benji go seeing as he's playing really well and Brooks and Reynolds aren't better then Benji.
But again if we could poach him for a year i'd be buzzing with that, although he's stated a few times before he's not keen to come to the UK, But so did Kevin Naiqama and look where he is now.
Money talks and if Widdop goes we should have a nice chunk to use

He's a vastly superior player to Gareth Widdop and he looks in good condition physically. He'd just need someone like Ashton to run his breaks in for him. And he'd need a strong defender to cover for him defensively.

Do we possibly have a game against Saints coming up?

Ha ha ha ha ha

It would be awesome to of seen Benji over here a few years back but at 35/36 I’m not so keen. We should be looking at talent in the U.K. recruitment wise for a future half. If Ashton continues to kick on and make more of an impact/make him self undroppable, we could see Ratchford move to 7 and save the salary to strengthen in other areas.

Definitely no to Ratchford as a permanent 7 . He was far less effective there last week than he had been at 13 against Hull. Ratchford is clealy not happy when his role is that of principal play maker. When he is free - especially from fullback - to chime in and add something extra to the attack - he is at his best.

From what I've been told us signing Benji is very unlikely. He'd retire over there before coming over here as he has a TV job lined up,

Let's sign Adam Sezer instead from Hudds.

Thought I read somewhere the people starting the New York franchise were courting him.

His twin brother Aidan is even better.

Apparently Brisbane are interested in Benji so i can't see him coming over. If Widdop is going do you think they'll wait until the end of the season to announce it?

They could always bring Inglis over earlier...

Brisbane are absolutely rotten though, so unless they are throwing serious cash at him, that we can't match, then he has a choice for his last year(s) in the game between fighting for the wooden spoon in the NRL or as a serious trophy contender in SL - Maybe he might fancy some glory in his latter years rather than flogging a dead horse in.the NRL?

Yeah but he has said a few times he doesn't want to come to the UK, so even if it was lower money it might suit him to stay in AUS and play as he has a commentry job lined up after he retires apparently.

Can Inglis play half-back? I’m not bothered about his organisational skills, he can just walk through defences instead.

inglis has played in the halves but is his best position and it would be wise to let one of the best centres of the last thirty years play where he's most comfortable.