I'm no Myler fan (never have been) but the above is very true.

Raymond Ashton must get a mention. Magic roundabout.

Quality player Ray Ashton. Did you notice I didn’t say good or bad quality...

I kind of liked Ashton. He at least looked like a proper scrum half, and had no fear of trying to organise others. He also played in the Yorks Cup win against Cas (1989?), which was only the second trophy in my time watching Leeds. mind you, it kind of helped that he was partnered by Cliff Lyons....

If you like your 7 to run around in a circle Ashton was your man. Bloody awful in my opinion.

Classic haircut though. And I liked the constant mouthing off from one of our players instead of the opposition.

As an aside, is my memory going completely or did Gary Stephens (father of Gareth) play a game for us once in 86/87? Now he was a good player. Sadly about 10 years before he played for us (if in fact he did).

That may well be the case and I`m sure he would look good alongside a Blake Austin.
But you still need desire and drive and at least try to do something different even if you are playing without a stand out number 6.
Myler for me doesn`t show any of that.
Whilst not a fan of Brough I`m sure he would be no shrinking violet if he was in Myler`s shoes for instance.

Quote ="BrisbaneRhino"Classic haircut though. And I liked the constant mouthing off from one of our players instead of the opposition. As an aside, is my memory going completely or did Gary Stephens (father of Gareth) play a game for us once in 86/87? Now he was a good player. Sadly about 10 years before he played for us (if in fact he did).'" I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?

Quote ="BrisbaneRhino"Classic haircut though. And I liked the constant mouthing off from one of our players instead of the opposition. As an aside, is my memory going completely or did Gary Stephens (father of Gareth) play a game for us once in 86/87? Now he was a good player. Sadly about 10 years before he played for us (if in fact he did).'" I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?

Again said with trepidation, but what is the difference between 7 and 6 these days anyway?
There is no real skill to feeding the scrum as such.
Both positions need a kicking game, distribution game, running game.
For me we could sign / develop two stand-offs and just interchange them.
If you unearth a Rob Burrow then yes you'd put them at 7 to somewhat protect them, but otherwise we just need two skilful, creative players in the halves who are good all-rounders.
Re Myler I've just not seen enough from his game this year in particular to make me think we should keep him. He's a nice lad (again) but his kicking game has been awful most of the time, and it's just not good enough I'm afraid. Yes, we've been on the back foot too much for him to breathe, but in every game we do apply pressure he fails to nail the last play time and again.

The only difference is a number on a shirt, a coach has 2 half backs and how they want them to operate is down to how they want the team to play, the attributes of both and how they compliment each other.

Quote ="Holmes"I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?'" Yes, he played in one game against Salford at the Willows. Not sure of the exact year but I'd say 88ish.

Quote ="Holmes"I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?'" Yes, he played in one game against Salford at the Willows. Not sure of the exact year but I'd say 88ish.

Quote ="Holmes"I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?'" He played for Cas up until the early 80s when he went to Wigan. He also played in Aus. I think his less talented son Gareth also had a spell there.

Quote ="Holmes"I remember Gary Stephens as an assistant coach to Dougie Laughton in 1991-92 but don't recall him playing 1st team at all. Annoyingly there is a gap for season 1987-88 on the Leeds website "timeline": https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1986-1987/ https://www.therhinos.co.uk/timeline/1980s/1988-1989/ I'm not sure how accurate it is but the following website has him recorded as a Leeds player: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/play ... mmary.html Does anyone else remember him?'" He played for Cas up until the early 80s when he went to Wigan. He also played in Aus. I think his less talented son Gareth also had a spell there.

Also seem to remember Kevin Harkin playing scrum half.
Did he come from Wakefield.
What was the deal that ended up with Mark Conway coming to us?
Wasn`t something like a 3 player swap?

Paul Harkin came to us from Bradford Northern for the 1990-91 season then moved on to Halifax. (Kevin Harkin played for Hull and York).
Mark Conway came through the Leeds colts. He was transferred to Wakefield along with Phil Fox, Andy Mason and Keith Rayne in an exchange for John Lyons and Gary Spencer.

Gary Spencer was probably the slowest FB to ever play for us,If you showed a slow motion replay of him in action then he would be stood still


Can't believe that he was preferred at FB in games whilst we shoved Ettingshausen out onto the wing in 1988?
He never really made that many appearances for Leeds (not more than 50 from memory)

He was Paul Wellens before Paul Wellens.

ET had a knee problem at the start of his second stint with us. A bit of floating bone or something, IIRC. That's part of why he was on the wing. Plus, lack of pace aside, Spencer was a good full back.

Spencer's other problem was that he kept dislocating his shoulder. He was indeed snail-like, as was another full back signed around the same time, Gary Lord. What a footrace that would have been. Although to be fair to Lord he was transitioning to the second row (or did we even sign him for that?). Luckily we signed those two and not Graham Steadman...........

Harkin would be a brilliant modern day HB if he could get fit. His kicking game was fantastic for its day. He was tough, skillful & could direct play. (He played for HKR not Hull).

Ah, Gareth Stephens, the halfback we signed instead of Jason Robinson.

Leeds RLFC, making monumental errors of judgement since 1953.

Stephens was a far better half.

He may have been better than Robinson as a scrum half but Stephens was rubbish. As was his A Team partner Francis Maloney. They used to be real standouts at that level. Sadly that was the only place they shone.

Stephens wasn’t rubbish when Leeds signed him. He was the best in his position at that age group. Remember we are talking academy equivalent here. He was the better they could have at scrum half. Of course someone should have had the foresight to see that Robinson could play other positions.

Agree re Paul Harkin & never said he played for Hull (that was another poster). Kevin is his cousin and played for Wakey twice, York & Hull.

I'm not sure Robinson would have flourished at Leeds anyway. Richie Gunn looked set for stardom until Kevin Dick took him under his wing (allegedly - quoting from John Holmes biography).