It's a bit early to discuss how good he has been as he got injured in the first game of the season against Hull FC. I just hope when or if he gets back into the team he proves to us that he is the big powerful and skillful player we thought he was when we signed him.

Yes, but Billinge_lump pretty much summed up my point above. Wheeler is young and light, Senior is experienced and a monster (and a 'third man in' cheap shot merchant for most of his career, but he did a good job of bullying an experienced back-rower in Wilkin last season). It would only make sense to try and put Wheeler off his game by roughing him up a bit, I suppose it's up to the coaches as to whether he is far enough into his development to be thrown in with the dogs. I can't, on the other hand, see Soliola being thrown around quite so easily.

Whereas I have absolutely no idea whether Soliola would be thrown around easily or not since I've only half seen him for half a match but I have seen Wheeler play under considerable pressure - for instance against Catalans, who have a big, burly, feisty pack. I'm pretty confident that Wheeler could hold his own against the dirtbags in the game as well as the gents. Besides, we can't go on protecting him from the nasty beasties for ever. He's, what, 20 now? Or 21? It's time we found out for certain whether he can hold his own against old ugly buttocks. I'd bet on it that he can.

It isn't a case of protecting Wheeler, he will have to deal with it at some point, and that certainly wasn't anybodies argument. It is a case of whether playing Soliola at centre will win us a game against Leeds due to him being a certain type of player. Judging by his career in the NRL, Soliola is a second rower, no doubt, but the original point was that it may be more advantageous to our team to play him at centre against certain opposition.

Ok. I would say it would be to our advantage to have Wheeler at centre and Soliola in the second row. Against Leeds and everyone else.

I understand where you are coming from, but for me, if he's playing well I'd keep Wheeler at centre.

Players playing together more often gain understanding of each others games, sometimes I think picking and choosing players depending on the opposition can damage our own game, doing more harm than good.