Although Dowes for Radford as he is out for the first few games isn't he?

Of course Pike brought down the average of Dad's Army.



I'm not going to take the figures seriously until somebody wastes several minutes of their life working out the standard deviation from the mean.

Is recruitment over?

Let's hope not eh !!



Otherwise we might be suffering from deja vu in 2011 and blaming it all on injuries.

Well we are looking to offload Burnett and the Berrigan rumours are really strong so I think there are still things to happen yet.

Tansey
Sharp
Berrigan
Yeaman
Briscoe
Horne
Long
O'meley
Houghton
Radford
Fitz
Tickle
Westerman

Manu
Moa
Lauaki
Dowes

if it were me who made the shout then i would go

Whiting
Sharp
Berrigan
Yeaman
Briscoe
Horne
Long
O'Meley
Houghton
Moa
Manu
Tickle
Westerman

Tansey
Fitzgibbon
Radford
Lauaki

Tansey spelling Houghton and Fitz coming on at prop? I like it but can't see it happening. The only negative is I would rather start with Fitz as we need his leadership and workrate on the pitch as much as possible. I'd swap him and Moa.

Tansey
Briscoe
Berrigan
Yeaman
Sharp
Horne
Long
O'Meley
Houghton
Radford
Fitzgibbon
Tickle
Westerman

Whiting
Manu
Lauaki
Moa

I would normally choose Whiting at FB over Tansey but next season i'm hoping Tansey has improved on/off the pitch. also whiting on the bench he can change with berro who could play hooker if needed

1.tansey
2.sharp
3.whiting
4.yeamen
5.briscoe
6.horne
7.long
8.omeley
9.berrigan
10.fitzgibbon
11.tickle
12.manu
13.westerman
subs
14.houghton
15.radford
16.moa
17.lauaki

j briscoe,kent,nicklas,crooks,turner,cunno,green,lynne,washy,burnett,dowes as backup, still we need a top class right centre, can see berro playing there but playing houghton for the full 80 every game will do him no good.

How ever we shuffle the players around, we are a HB and a centre or a HB and a hooker short of having a squad that is capable of seriously challenging for silverware. A big no-nonsense prop would also be a bonus.

Roll on 2012 because, if we are serious about being the best, that will be our chance to show it with our recruitment and retention.

1 Tansey
2 Sharp
3 Berrigan
4 Yeaman
5 T. Briscoe
6 Horne
7 Long

8 Fitzgibbon
9 Houghton
10 O'Meley
11 Tickle
12 Manu
13 Westerman

14 Whiting
15 Lauaki
16 Radford
17 Moa

spot on with all things said there, 2012 is a huge year and hopefully the club are really ambitious and recruit some real quality. a top quality prop,centre,scrum half is needed with big players like long,fitz expected to go

My god,how can anybody have Whiting as a full back?,if this happened we would have the worst attacking full back in the league,

Full back is one of the most pivotal attackng positions in the modern game and to have someone who is barely faster than my gran,would be a disaster,not knocking Whiting because he'll give 100%,but the only position I'd have for him would be as a utility player on the bench.

I'd start running now if I were you.

Agree with whiting comment, why would you play him fb, what a waste of a attaking posistion, you must be agar fans, if your 1st choice fb is whiting! negative negative negative! and we may aswel forget having horne and long starting 17, i'll be amazed if there both fit for first game, tansey play 6 then you all can have your wish of having whiting a fb! oh dear i fear another frustrating season

Based on our current squad, I'd have Whiting at Fullback ahead of Tansey every time.

Yes, you need an attacking fullback which Tansey undoubtably is - but you've got to catch the ball first.
Whiting is as safe as houses under the high ball while Tansey is a flapper.

IMO although not fast, Whiting is a formidable attacking player.

It would be great to have attacking players in positions 1, 6,7, 9 and 13 but our current squad doesn't offer an abundance of riches.

My god anyone would think Tansey never took a high ball, also what about the tries he helped create and score?

I'm a massive fan of tansey , yes he makes mistakes but he's young and still learning but some of the stuff he does is really good. E.g Bradford away last season

Agreed tansey for me everytime as you just said Bradford away I would say no body else in our squad or many other players in the league would have made that break nevermind give out the unbelievable offload at the end of it. Yes he drops a few balls and makes mistakes but who doesn't especially full backs as they are one of the most exposed positions in the game, people moan about us playing boring rugby but they want to take out our most arguably creative player out because he makes a few errors!

Think i've only seen him drop 3 or 4.

Think some people need to get their heads out of their rear with regard tansey, consistency is his issue imo and has the potential to be a quality player. Can,t say I've seen him drop many high balls even B.Hodgeson drops the odd one.

I agree it would be madness to start Whiting at fullback, last season we were one of the least creative teams in the competition, Tansey used as an extra pivot from fullback was probabally our best attacking option (if lacking in constistancy) and with no improvements to our poor halfback options taking that away would limit us even further, he needs to kick on but he will be our first choice fullback next year.

Tansey is that wild he is worth having in the side, you enver know what he is going to do. He could do something stupid or do something completely brilliant. For the simple fact he's one of a few players in the team that is prepared to do something different, even if the idea fails. We have too many players who are happy to just do a steady job, Tansey will actually try something different and he'll only get better.