Glad to see we gave you a contest. Couldn't make it to the match.

Golding has the class to play in most of the backs/half positions IMO.




I will continue to argue my corner (IMO of course) without fear or favour with any contributors when required!



You may recall my standing up for Burrow ( & Mac) have been among my "diatribes/endless battles" particularly with you Nanty

There some nice stuff from your boys. I think you might be in for a good season. Just got to time it right for the final 8.

I remember Golding at Warrington early last season as looking a bit nervous but willing to put effort in

Yesterday (and NZ game) we see a lad who looks so comfortable with the ball in hand it's untrue

Great work by Brian Mac

....really? You're surely forgetting about his first name namesake who is surely first in line to replace anybody who might depart in the threequarters !!

Golding IMO already has the confidence to make a success of running plays from SO; alongside Lilley who if anything looks even more confident. They are all three an exciting prospect for the future of the club

He (Golding) didn't look too confident in the Salford game either.......as you say great work by the coach/club in nurturing his talent at just the right pace. I think we all agree the lad has a great future ahead of him. His pass for Faloon's try was confidently sublime for one so young

Pedant



....but thanks for pointing out my mistake. It is the only way we learn.

Let's hope you will learn from your many mistakes in contradicting my erudition.

Hard to tell how we will go across the back line structure wise until a couple of games in I reckon. Looking at the forwards for me was most interesting yesterday. Early doors, but, we may prosper in different ways with the new lads I reckon. Galloway looks like he could be a wrecking ball, he's never gonna do stints like JP, but I think he may make more yards per carry. As for Garbutt, he will also make good yards per carry, but unlike Kyle, we have more chance of an offload from him. He looked to offload a couple of times with unfortunately no support on hand. Baldwinson has made a big lad, but in the couple of spells I've seen, it's been hard to judge what sort of an impact he may have. We will obviously miss JP's immense tackling stints, but at times he lacked the energy to go forward on the back of it. Maybe the new lads only being able to do shorter stints may be a bonus, only time will tell. Going forward the pack looks plenty strong enough, whether they will defend like the treble winning pack is the key question.

Shame this soi-disant erudition does not extend to rugby so that other contributors (or contributers as you so eruditely would say) would not contradict your acumen so often.

Handley is first reserve winger and Golding first reserve full back however Golding showed his real class well before he first played in the first team and IMO has leap frogged Handley as a possible centre should Keinhorst be unavailable. He can also play scrum half too with Lilley more suited to the SO position.

That's a bad example it was played in a severe gale first half any fullback would struggle in that.

Well from my own pov im not convinced Falloon has done enough to start at 9 although i accept it takes time for many players to settle into new Club etc.
First half we got dragged into a slow grind and hopefully that's blown the cob-webs off i'd also hope the TJ on the SS side of the ground 1st half learns what a knock on is and his opposite number what a forward pass is yes it's pre-season but both were blatant p1$$ poor errors imo.
I agree re-Mags/Burrow combo both killed moves at times going solo or giving slow ball out wide also for me Garbutt is a must starter i think he could be our best Prop in terms of the hard yards and hitting like a train Singo also did damage and is a must for the 17 either at Prop or LF.
Ferres looked every bit a quality SR and tbh i aren't concerned re-penalties the Ref was as off the pace as we were 1st half.
Galloway looked much better from boxing day which wasn't hard and i might have a cheeky fiver on TB being top try scorer this year.
Don't know what Walters did wrong for Gotcha to chelp about him but we have LOADS imo to work on across the board.
Golding and Lilley are both SL ready imo especially Ash so some big calls re-boths future will need to be made come 2017 imo.
Bradford were ok but even though they're getting wraps for some of their play i dont think they'll get promoted.
For the Wire game as we stand i'd go with..
Hardaker
Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall
Sutty
Mags
Cuthbo
Burrow
Garbutt
Ablett
Ferres
Delaney

Singo
Galloway
Keinhorst
Falloon

Even before the pre-season games started I felt Garbutt had the potential to have a big season for us in 2016, think he could well be getting some mentions in a few peoples Dream Teams come the end of the season (although a tough category with the likes of Walmsley and Hill)

For me Garbutt towards the end of the season was our best and most consistent prop

I know he's only had a couple of games but for me Galloway hasn't impressed as much as Cuthbertson or Garbutt did in their first couple of games after arriving.

I agree he faired much better than on Boxing Day but that wouldn't be hard as the impression to be gained solely from Boxing Day was that we'd resigned Ben Cross

I can't see Golding at centre. He's way too small in my opinion. I'd have Ablett, Handley, Briscoe, Hardaker, Keinhorst or even Ward ahead of him at centre.
Full back, half back yes. Not centre for me, he'd get smashed with and without the ball.

Yep I agree. Again one of those that doesn't consider the defensive side of things. Can anybody really see him being able to do the tackling the likes of Moon and Watkins do.

Yep. And that tackling at centre has to both help cover the halfback defending next to them but also deal with second rowers and props running at them.
It's not just in defence I'd worry about his size either, in attack your centre has to enough physicality to worry defenders or they won't isolate them and create gaps as often. Yes footwork and agility is useful but you need some size to you too. There aren't many small centre's in SL.

All fair points but the suggestion that Golding could play centre was in my case given in the event that Keinhorst were unavailable as first reserve centre and I had said this was after his more suited positions of fullback and then half back. The point was he has the allround skills and genuine class to play in all the creative attacking positions. Yes as a young lad of 20 he currently lacks the physique to fulfill the 2nd row defensive aspects of the modern centre role but then so did Watkins when he first appeared. Some said he was too lightweight for fullback and he has proven them to be wrong.

Anyone expecting Galloway to be coming in and smashing people or throwing out offloads didn't watch much NRL.

He's a grafter, he'll do the unspectacular 20 carries and 35 tackles a game that lets everyone else play around him, and he'll do it without taking a backward step.

If Cuthbertson continues his pre-season form of just blindly throwing offloads every time he takes the ball up Leeds will need a prop or two that enjoys defending.

Spot on.

If Galloway can do the hard yards and effectively cover what an in prime Kylie offered he will be a good team signing.

As for Cuthbo, he needs to be careful. As last season progressed his offloads got more erratic and more caused defensive issues for us than the opposition. He just needs to be more controlled.

He looked like a man in his element out there....smashing it up for fun.
I was further impressed with Singleton, and on a few occasions we got a glimpse of Ferres and Watkins and what they might do once things click.

Sorry my post was really in response to the person who said that Golding could easily play centre, whereas I think he'd really struggle in that position.
Obviously he's still young and can bulk out as he'll have only just started proper weights etc but the likes of Watkins had a much bigger existing frame on which he could put on some extra bulk. I dont think Golding can do that nor would we necessarily want him to. I think we've got enough cover for centre should we need it, I'd rather move Hardaker to centre and put Golding to full back

Yes I would go along with that.

Make that another Rhino on board now. Richie Mathers' 6 month ban has finished and even though he announced his retirement during that time he's just signed for the Bulls.

Retirement. Signing for the Bulls. Same deal.