No abuse please for stating the obvious but we are only into round 7 and its clear that we don't have any strength in depth for our front row. RA coughed looking into the loan market and mentioned looking here and overseas.

We let Matt James, Steve Southern, Tom Lillycrop and more recently Brad Singleton (albeit on loan) go without maintaining a squad with 5 genuine props in it.



I hope St. Helens don't just run over the top of our lightweight pack and its an area that needs looking at as its a long season and we don't want to burn out players like Justin Poore......

I heard Steve Nash is available.

pretty obvious that we are short of a prop but with another prop annakin would not of been given his chance in the side and would probably have gone a full season without an appearance again which is no good for his development

I see Ben Gledhill has gone to Sheffield on dual reg. Not sure whether he would've been a solution.

Not on last nights showing!

I'd have been happy keeping James as a back up for when situations like this arise but without knowing the ins & outs of finances etc it's hard to say.

And that would have been a crying shame. This lad is ready now and has been probably our best player over the last 3 weeks, definitely our MOTM tonight.

No abuse, but Southern was never a genuine prop, Singleton was not ours (and didn't show much by any accounts anyway); James seems to divide opinions with no real evidence, and Lillycrop is a name that can't have come up for the last 6 months at least, and certainly not in a 1st team context. So what do you want to do? We do have a squad with 5 props in it. It just happens they're not all fit.

It's an issue of cash. We took a risk on numbers and injuries. At the moment we're feeling it.

I keep hearing the dreaded two words: Darrell Griffin.

On the saints board in the run-up to this game they were bemoaning a surplus of props and suggesting they needed to rotate them to keep them match fit. Any spares we fancy?

Having watched Fev vs Sheffield on Thursday night, I didn't see anything to suggest that Gledhill or James would be the solution.

Singleton did absolutely nothing of merit whilst with us, so again, not really relevant.

Anakin is looking really solid - I'd like to see him in the prop rotation for the rest of this season; that will make clear if he's a genuine prospect at SL level, or not.

I agree with the general point though - we're at least one decent prop short and the recent injuries/discipline issues have served to highlight that. Given where we are though, I'm not sure we'd be in the market even if someone was available.

Matt James i believe left as he went regular first team action so it's hard to be critical of the club for that. I think Trout has been given the opportunity to prove himself but looks a couple of years away from being an out and out prop

I would hope that the release of John, Slater & Singleton plus the season long loan of Walshaw would mean there would be something in the pot for a signing if one was available, especially now with the sponsorship hole filled in. Unless we are more skint than we think.

The sponsorship hole has been filled but we don't know how much money we were shorted by France before they went belly up.

Out of the names mentioned Singleton was only here for a very short time and wouldn't have cost us hardly anything, Slater will have been on very little and we're still paying most of Walshaw's wages, so the only significant surplus we might have would come from John going back home. But as I said above without knowing the ins & outs of how much Eric France owed us before going bust, it's hard to say where it's left us.

We obviously have a very tight budget anyway and are hardly going to start splashing cash we haven't got, if people want to call that skint, fair enough but I'd call it living within our means. Even if we had a bit of money spare, there seems a dearth of quality Props around the League anyway and I reckon Agar wouldn't want to bring someone in unless he could definitely improve us.

In an ideal world we could do with another good prop and creative half imo, but our budget as others have said might not stretch that far.

Dont know how fit he is but what about Stu Dickens? He would at least give us some presence on the bench.

I would not mind seeing that, doubt he'll want to pull on a shirt though.

Bens gone backwards but he is recovering from injury so maybe he'll turn it around, James has dropped a level imo and is a better player than i watched that night.

Anakins been messed around by this club for too long and more than deserves a run in the first team.

I don't know anything about how he's been treated up to now, but he looks to me like a lad who's been given an opportunity and has grasped it with both hands; I'd like to see more of him.

I will be livid if we allow him to slip away to another club after this time. He was outstanding at 17/18 and it's taken him a year or so to make the switch to the mans game, but we have a gem here IMO.

New contract please!

I could see him as a future 13, reminds me of a young Paul Gallen, not the biggest but as powerful as a bull. Hurts people with his tackling, really gets stuck in.

I completely agree, the thing is though his agent might not and it wont be long until everyones metal is tested the rate he is going.
If its down to a bidding war we need to pray he bleeds red white and blue.

The club can wave goodbyeto my Club 1873 membership if this jid is allowed to slip through our fingers.
He has been superb in every game he's played this season and he should be rewarded for that.

I see him as the natural replacement for Washbrook, and I think he'll make a far better backrower than battering ram. In effect he's already showing Washbrook how to have poise and how to pass a ball.