I thought he looked solid both going forward and in defence. So far looks a good signing to me.

He is a clone of Kylie Leuluai, which all things considered is ok. I am a little concerned about our overall lack of go forward in the front row without Peacock, but Cross can only do what he can do. If he turns out to be a bit of a duffer then don't blame the bloke blame the bloke that signed him.

All of our starting front row on Sunday were from Overseas and were all (well) over 30. Not good.

To be fair, Peacock & Bailey were injured, Pitts, Ambler & Clarkson are young and English, and Ablett is only 25 (ish!?), Kirke & JJB are both sub 30 and English too.

We could easily have

Ambler McShane Bailey
Pitts Ablett
Clarkson.

That's an all English pack with the average age of 24 (ish?).

No need to make it sounds QUITE so doom & gloom!




Edit - Yes I've realised Ambler has represented Ireland. My bad... an all British pack.

And you'd be happy with the pack named above would you? It would get murdered every week.

It wasn't so much a doom and gloom, more pointing out something that needs correcting over the next 2 years. Especially when you consider that Peacock will be retired by then, Bailey is unlikely to improve significantly and Burgess will be in Aus. IMHO we will need to sign at least one, probably two good English props within the next two years.

I'd say the same...although I still have high hopes of and faith in Ambler: pity he didn't have this season to cement his place.

Cross needs to improve a hell of a lot (we know Kirke definitely won't) to convince me either is worth Ambler's place in the squad.

Hood looks as though he might be good enough to take the place of Buderus.

Leuluai must be very near his last year as well.

Perhaps but like a fine wine he is still getting better with age.

Or not.

I agree, over the next couple of years we'd need to pad out our pack (when Peacock, Cross, Leulaui go).

However by either luck or design the match on Sunday was on Sunday, and not 2 years from now on a Sunday. We're playing right now. So I don't see how it's a problem that on Sunday our front row was 30+ & Overseas. We haven't signed Ben Cross to win us SL '13 have we?!

Leuluai, Buderus & Cross may be over 30 & overseas but they were on the bus home with 2 points.
Graham, Roby & McCarthy-Scarsbrook are all young and English but had to share the points.

Take it a match at a time, and judge them based on that.

Yeah I have to agree with the lack of British props/forwards coming through - It seemed the club tried to address this with the addition of Pitts, Armour, Ambler and we have Burgess.. but to be honest i'm not sure at all if any of them will make international honours.. time will tell i suppose. Props especially need plenty of time to mature and develop - don't they say props tend not to peak until 28ish.. i'm sure i recall Barry Mac saying that a while back..

Regarding my original question of Cross, good to see no-one writing him off yet.. i think he'll settle and go well.

Took a couple of really big hits today or has a glass jaw?

The 1st one he went awkward into the tackle and copped a knee i think mate.
The 2nd was a high shot and prior to that i thought he was doing ok.

I didn’t see the first one – obscured by the post. The second look fairly innocuous but I guess he copped a shot to the head.

If he hadn’t fully recovered from the first ‘KO’ then maybe he should he spent some time on the bench instead on convincing the doc that he was ok to go on.

Still not convinced by this signing.

Time will tell mate.

Amen brother.

TBF on him have you seen the size of that jaw? It's harder to miss!

You talking about Gav again mate?

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... -qs11.html Not a new thing to him by the sounds of it.

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... -qs11.html Not a new thing to him by the sounds of it.

How rude.

[i"Ben Cross will have a brain scan today after suffering three bouts of concussion in his past three matches"[/i

+ twice today.

Looks like he's prone to this kind of injury.

He looks like Danny Nutley but that's where the similarity ends.

Ben Cross-Eyed?

Southern Cross, cos he was seeing stars?

He should have been brought off the first time, he was out of it and all over the place.

Turpin?