how desperate are you for wingers?

pretty desperate to be fair.

The journiest of journey men. But I suppose we're desperate.

We need a little bit of experience. We’ve a couple of younger lads who either aren’t quite ready or injured. As much as I’m not a fan of Russell’s and he can come in and do a job for 2 months that’s fine by me.

If he's available then that's already a massive improvement on the current incumbent.

Those younger lads aren’t really proper wingers either, Russell will do a job for us which is what these loan signings are for.

I agree. We can gnash and moan or just accept that we’re in need of a winger. I doubt there was a ton of options and as I said, if he can come in and do a job for 2 months then great.

He’s got a pretty good try per game ratio as well

Hope he doesn’t read Twitter, he’ll feel really welcome if he did.

i'm presuming thats your side, or the wigan fans, maybe not the fc fans, probably the wire fans.

there were a lot (myself included) unhappy that he was re-signed last year, even on a cheap deal, his last game for us against salford, he was pretty bad, letting balls bounce, generally being out of position a lot, he really looks out of place now in the burgess team.

Our ‘fans’.

It’s a loan signing in a position where we really need a bit of go forward and experience.

If we’d signed him proper it would be a different matter.

If we look at the bigger picture Russell essential replaces Olpherts spot in the squad and he is a upgrade on Olpherts (which isn't hard I know) we currently have Fusitu'a out for over 2 months and Lumb who was next choice is also out injured long term. So we are in need of a winger.

Russell will hopefully go well he's very good out of yardage which is a area our backs struggle with apart from Ash Handley imo. He's also no slouch when it comes to speed again something we lack in our backline apart from Handley again.

I think as well this also put pressure on players to perform, such as Miller & Momirovski when he's back, Smith dropped Frawley for lack luster performances, I think Miller is lucky we don't have a game this week because he may have suffered the same wrath. Russell covers Wing and fullback so our backline players need to make sure their performing to keep a place.

I know we haven't had a lot to cheer about being Rhinos fans this last 5/6 years but the club can't do right from doing wrong at times, we need back line recruits due to injuries club does that and we still get usual whining and moaning from the fanbase.

Maybe because i havnt seen as much of Russell as others, but iv always thought he's been alright the times i have...Decent enough considering our current situation

No issue with this signing not world class but a solid superleague winger with good try to Game ratio and good bring the ball out of defence. Good sensible piece of business which allows Roberts to cover centre where to be fair I think he's done ok without setting the world alight. Russell not likely to get too many decent passes anyway lol

I remember when we signed enselme on loan in 2008 due to injuries.

We were playing so well at the time. Funny that, how injuries didn’t need to be a mitigating circumstance for absolute crap.

Probably easier to cope with an injury crisis when your starting 13 looks like that

Don’t mind this tbh. Better than what we’ve got. Can’t lose. He’s only on loan. He’ll be hungry to do well.

Probably the best we could hope for in the situation.

He's experienced and can cover both wing and full back. Just highlights the lunacy of re-signing Fusitu'a.

Exellent comment Lunacy in re-signing Fusitua worst re signing I can remember.

What is happening with Roberts - is he injured too?

Yes, I remember expecting us to get battered but we ended up winning some memorable games.

The difference is that that team was a champion side full of confidence. A good proportion of the team had won two GFs together.

We also had a coach who was excellent at motivating his players. I can't remember the details of the injuries at the time but I suspect we had a better pack than the current lot (Kirke aside).

Would Brian McClennan get more out of the current team? Maybe. But he had other (technical) deficiencies that would be more ruthlessly exposed in the present situation.

McClennan was very much a "motivator" you get there and I'll set you up sort of guy.
You're correct that the team at the team basically looked after itself tactics / team wise so not sure what else he could squeeze out tactically from our side at the moment, it would be basics but thats all we really need to improve on at the current time. Stop trying to be so flash and just get the sets completed and tear in with defence.

wonder if sam.allerdyce knows RL?

Hes not great this Leeds team isn't that good either so he's at the level required beats Mr bump hands down.