so you keep telling us, and we wonder why we're struggling to make any progress.

Didn't think you would answer the question. Horney is a decent squad player.

He's a decent back up option but we're now relying on him due to seymour's form and health issues

No problem with Horne's role in the squad.

Not many have back up players as good as him.

Looking at his stats - he is top of the list of Try Assists in the League (more than Dobson, Lomax, Myler, Pryce etc) - he has also made more tackles than any of those players. Decent number of clean breaks (beaten by Lomax, Myler and Kearney - but 2 of them are chiming in from full back with more room to manoevre)

Why not look at what he is actually doing in the pitch - he is actually perfoming well and is far from the being the reason why we are struggling at the moment

Well said. It seems to be Rich's role in life to be the scapegoat for lots of posters on here. He doesn't let us down and as shown above, he's better than many in try assists and clean breaks. We would all wish for a world beater, but we haven't got one and until we do Rich will do for me.

I dont disagree he's making a very valuable contribution so far, but he's not the future, an expensive comfort blanket.

No, he isnt the future, neither are Lynch, O'Meley, Heremaia, Tickle etc etc - but they dont get the same targetting that Rich gets. To have our 'back up' half performing as the stats suggest is brilliant, time for the starting 13 to up their games too (Lineham, Briscoe, apart)

i wouldnt say expensive much anymore.. i reckon horneys on crumbs now

I know he isnt the solution for next year - but how is the half back we sent to Australia doing? Is he the one that has been on the bench for the U19's this year?

No, he's still under 16's.

A squad number of 16 strongly indicates that nobody at the club sees him as 'the future' either. And exactly how expensive is he? Because as far as I can tell his salary hasn't been made public.

Face it - for some reason you have an issue with Horne that prevents you from assessing his worth to the squad dispassionately.

Too many people on here read into posts things which aren't there.

You often ask posters to respond to the post and not the poster. It's inconsistent that you then pretty much do the same thing you refer to and mainly comment on players and not their play.

You contradict yourself, the quoted post makes specific comment about his play

ok if were discussing his "play" and not the usual site bashing you give him
How did YOU think he did in the last two games ..............

I said mainly, not exclusively. I suspect the only reason you commented on his form was because you were specifically challenged about it in the same way as I am now doing. In the main you simply pick him out as not good enough, regardless of how he is playing or how it compares to those around him, as you hold an opinion on him which you will not veer from. You used to do similar with Whiting.

It’s perfectly normal to defend an opinion, and even to not have it swayed too easily, but IMO once you let the opinion become the driving force and not the evidence it becomes worthless.

On a couple of occasions in both games he made a break that a younger Richard Horne would have made more of, but he's been far from our worst player, his constant "drop off inside" ball is as boring as it is predictable. He does far too much tackling (as does Houghton).

Every club/team does the "drop off".

What else would you want them to do?

not on every bloody play the ball though!

our attack has been pretty much abysmal this season, other have commented, lack of line/dummy runner etc.

we're as boring to watch as we have ever been, even under Fubar.

What i would like to see more and it's something easy to do.

Houghton when at dummy half he passes the ball straight away (as a hooker should i know, let me finish)
but what i think he should do is just move off a little to take out the square markers. It is effective and it takes the markers out the equation.

I'd rather he improved his passing off the floor (better now than it was) allowing our first receiver to stand wider and take the markers out that way.

But that gives them time to either tackle the dummy half, interfere with the pass, or for the defensive line to move up quicker.

It drives me insane when hookers pass slowly off the mark due to messing around.

I played hooker, and the speed of your attack was always increased by a sharp, quick pass from the floor, as opposed to the hookers who pick it up and pass it. If you think, the defence move up as soon as the foot touches the ball, so if the hooker then has to pick the ball up and engage the markers, the rest of the defence is already up on us