Quote ="Blobbynator"Stand Off is a priority position for us. I didn't realise how many assists Sneyd had for Cas, he's clearly fit into that structure well so maybe he is worth taking a gamble on afterall. It would also allow Lance to cover the hooking role and not burn out Roby.
We need to improve the forwards aswell though, that's the biggest area of improvement. If we brought in a work horse prop to replace Laffranchi and a good back rower to replace Manu (along with Vea who looks to be Sia's replacement) I'd be fairly content.
We need to look for quality rather than quantity - Wheeler, Gardner, Clough, Laffranchi, Flanagan, Sia and Manu could all leave at the end of the year and apart from Sia none really offer us consistency. Manu shows flashes of quality and Laffranchi is fairly solid but the others are bit part players that can be replaced by some of the younger lads who have come in and played well.
If you release those players at the end of the year and bring in a prop (Ashton Simms has been mentioned), a back rower like Danny Kirmond who is consistent every week, Sneyd and a good Centre all of a sudden the shape of the side looks better:
Lomax, Makinson, Centre, Percival / Jones, Swift, Sneyd, Walsh, Amor, Roby, Walmsley, Kirmond, Vea, Wilkin.
Subs: Hohaia, Masoe / LMS, New prop, Greenwood.
Then you'd have players like Richards, LMS, Turner, Masoe, Savelio, Greenwood, Thompson, Wellens, Beaumont all in reserve to give compeititon.
Most of all, I think we require a new coach. Someone who can coach a more committed & structure defence. That's the area we really struggle because under Brown we have been massively inconsistent and instead of him dropping the underperforming players he's stuck with them and it's led to more inconsistent performances.'"
And who do you suggest Brown brings in for these under performers given our injury situation ?
Biggest culprits have to be LMS and Turner , but with our numbers so low ,there's very few other options. Only one I can see is Savelio for LMS but if rumours are true about his appearances being limited because of cap room then Browns hands are tied.
