One break doesn't expunge the fact that he's a plodder; safe under the high ball most of the time, but offers very little in attack.

Mathers, even with his 1 on 1 frailties, is a superior fb in every way. Sorry.

Agreed Mathers is a better fullback than Murphy.

In your opinion.

Quote ="financialtimes"You may want to check out the player stats before you splurge such drivel from your =#FF0040NO NEED www.superleague.co.uk/stats Mathers No3 in SL and for Murphy not even half the M's Mathers made and not even made the most for Hudds =#FF0000El Rey'" He's certainly got some decent stats behind him Mathers. I particularly like the amount of runs from dummy half he's made 42, tackle busts 20 when the most is 28 and the amount of meters he's made 756, the most is 854. As for Mathers v Murphy, I'd personally have what we've got tbh.

Quote ="financialtimes"You may want to check out the player stats before you splurge such drivel from your =#FF0040NO NEED www.superleague.co.uk/stats Mathers No3 in SL and for Murphy not even half the M's Mathers made and not even made the most for Hudds =#FF0000El Rey'" He's certainly got some decent stats behind him Mathers. I particularly like the amount of runs from dummy half he's made 42, tackle busts 20 when the most is 28 and the amount of meters he's made 756, the most is 854. As for Mathers v Murphy, I'd personally have what we've got tbh.

Don't kid yourself murphy's far better

If Mathers could tackle like Smurph......he wouldn't be playing for us!

I'm happy that we've got a full-back that adds to our attack so effectively, and whilst less than impressed with his tackling it's up to the rest of the team to minimise the number of times he's left one-on-one.

I went on Friday and of all the players we had playing, Mathers would have been well down my list of suspects for a 6 page thread!
The 3rd Lomax try he was weak but we will offset that for his one on one stop of Francis Meli, something Foxy failed to do all night.
I thought Wilkes and Aiton went well, Fox, Mariano, Wood and Sykes were below par. The rest ok'ish.
At the end of the day, we went to Saints with what some would say are our 5 best players, including 4 of the starting front 5 and our most influential half missing, what were we expecting??

Manu and Meli offloaded as and when they wanted, and Lomax pretty much did whatever he wanted and was playing at a completely different level to anyone else on the park. Also impressed with the lad Walmsley who I thought showed up well for them.

i would personally leave mathers at fullback but think cockayne could be dangerous there and offer more defensively

Quote ="financialtimes"You may want to check out the player stats before you splurge such drivel from your =#FF0040NO NEED www.superleague.co.uk/stats Mathers No3 in SL and for Murphy not even half the M's Mathers made and not even made the most for Hudds =#FF0000El Rey'" Ah stats the idiots best friend - you believe your stats luvvy I'll believe my eyes. Truth is club groupies like you would be wetting yourself over Murphy had we kept him but now he's not in the same league as Mathers according to you. It would be funny if it were not so sad.

Quote ="financialtimes"You may want to check out the player stats before you splurge such drivel from your =#FF0040NO NEED www.superleague.co.uk/stats Mathers No3 in SL and for Murphy not even half the M's Mathers made and not even made the most for Hudds =#FF0000El Rey'" Ah stats the idiots best friend - you believe your stats luvvy I'll believe my eyes. Truth is club groupies like you would be wetting yourself over Murphy had we kept him but now he's not in the same league as Mathers according to you. It would be funny if it were not so sad.

Your wrong Bren and I think you know it - one has ticker one doesn't and that's the clincher. One is also relatively young and can still learn the other can't.

Deary me you're a drudge.

I would have Murphy back in a heartbeat. In his last few seasons he had little opportunity to shine in attack, and unfortunately his defensive capabilities were over used. When he played fullback he looked more than capable.

Mathers one on one as everyone can see is awful, but his attacking abilities at least counter a portion of that. As others have said if his defence was as good as his attack he wouldn't be at the club.

A certain full back at Saints is not much more than a plodder, he's done alright for himself over the years.


Just saying.

Don't kid yourself Mathers's far better



<<financialtimes mode>>

I can see good and bad in both of them but would not claim either is "far better" than the other.

Not long ago a few claimed we'd moved forward in signing Fox and the players he replaced at the club would not be missed, now it seems the same few a doubting that also.

FWIW i don't think overall we've done too badly (squad wise) and untill we can sign quality we'll have to make do.

"Club groupies"

I did not go but it does not suprise me he's made "hot topic" again.

Correct and sums Friday night up.People have got their veiws on Mathers and others and wont be changed,getting boring and sad now

Better a club groupie than a myopic dinosaur.
All those stats are sooo made up


You go back to your memories of yesteryear and relive the black & white 70's when the game was played in 6inches of mud and water and the ball kicked off a cup of sand


I'll stay and watch the modern game where the fullback has moved on a little since Clive Churchill

Yesteryear? That's a perfect summary of our U14's match with Lock Lane on Sunday!

From what I have seen of pitches over the last couple of weeks there is a real issue over the state of them, the ground has become so waterlogged of the last 10 months the surfaces are just breaking up in to mud baths even after an emerging 8's game, and reading a few comments about the cas pitch yesterday where they had already cancelled the U19's game due to the state of the pitch, it sounded like it was ruined by a bunch of line dancers

Indeed - the start of the season has been marred by it for me; every game we've played thus far has been a horrible, boggy affair, with loads of weather induced handling errors and no real opportunity to play any game other than bashing it up the middle.

Some pitches fare better than others, but after the worst winter in god knows how many years, it's been a distinctly uninspiring start to the season.

=#FF0000Back on topic gents please

Mathers is crap in muddy conditions.

Better?