Really felt for the kid tonight. He got dragged off for his poor defensive display, a massive confidence blow to any young player.

If his performance was the baseline for being hauled off, Wellens and Gardner should have also gone in the 1st half.

SCAPEGOAT!

To be fair to Harry you can see why the club have been so reluctant to play him at centre, which is apparently his position. He is far too small and weak. Lomax is worse and with Wello and Gardner auditioning for a sports cockup compilation DVD coverspot it was the most comical back line in the history of the sport.

I think Potter thought we'd win anyway and to be fair if we hadn't dropped the balls from kicks we'd have won by 20 despite a terrible attacking performance.

So why did he put him at centre then? Roby would have made a better job of it.






It was a bit like that, wasn't it? Although I'm still not going to be drawn into spanking Wello (much as I would actually enjoy it!) because he had to cope with trying to defend two totally rubbish wings. In that kind of situation, what to do? Flap about in the middle somewhere I guess!


Which is why McCrae, being an astute coach, kicked us to death. He knows we're bollox under the kick.

Foster and Lomax-two turnstiles together.

More examples of our vastly over rated youngsters

I want Foster to succeed, but in his handful of appearances so far, i've see nothing from him in general play to suggest he is ready for the step up. Maybe he will be in the future, and hopefully he'll learn from today. But apart from his goalkicking (which even then, his duties seem to have been handed back to Eastmond) I don't think he adds anything to the set up.

I just hope he doesn't become the next Ste Tyrer.

Way, way too early to say any of that. The guy played twice at wing, was out injured for a week and came back as centre. How stupid was that of Potter? Stupid, that's what it was. Foster is inexperienced and unused to dealing with the big blokes. Over time we'll either see him develop or disappear. Likewise with Lomax, who has gone backwards with his ball skills although he has been out of action for 10 weeks so no surprise really that he is match rusty.

And besides, we don't know why virtually the whole team decided to regress to a few weeks ago tonight. Few senior players exactly did the jersey justice, did they?

Foster,Lomax,Wheeler= not good enough for SL

What the feck is wrong with Wheeler?

Its not too early to say he doesn't seem ready for the step up to Super League rugby. The lad has potential, but this isn't reserve grade. You're right to say he's inexperienced and right to say he isn't used to playing against 13 fully developed players every week. He will be, but he isn't just yet.

I intended to stress that it may be a wee bit too early for Foster to play regularly. I know for now he is a stop gap replacement until the likes of Meli and Wheeler get back into the side, but the few people on here who thought he should replace Meli on a full time basis after the Leeds match are very misguided.

and what happened to flannery?

felt sorry for the lad, he never got a chance to make up for the mistakes.

But what I'm saying is that it is too early to make that judgement since he's only had three games and he's already been asked to switch places (and let's face it, Potter does like to experiment - by his own confession too). Had he played on the wing with, say, Roby playing centre (assuming Flannery was injured although I've no idea whether he was) then he could well have had a better game. He is perfectly capable of putting in some great defensive moves but his line defence isn't yet strong enough. That could be positioning and/or strength and/or style. Only time will tell but I don't think three games is enough to say that he is not yet ready for the step up, especially when half the team were misfiring.

Nope. Potter preferred to put him out then pull him out, no doubt undermining his confidence in the process.

Wheeler hasn't looked a step out of place, cracking player and will only improve. Easily SL standard.

The jury is still out on the other two I suppose, but I tend to feel the same as you.

Wheeler is the better of the three, but where is he? He misses far more games than he's available for.

Not true this season actually. He was tackled over the hoardings at Hull KR and continued to play with stitches in but they became infected and so he missed a game or two. He got a wrist injury in training and that is why he is missing at present. How serious that is I don't know. But had he not ended up over the hoardings at Hull KR, he would have so far missed two games, which many of our players have this season. Meli alone has put in a good stint of injury and now Wello will be on his third absence, no doubt.

There was a time when Eastmond appeared to be made of glass, but not this season. Wheeler is more than likely having a bad run with injuries. It's his ability that was being questioned, and for me he has shown he can mix it at this level already.

I do think people are a bit harsh on Foster I think the problem is injuries (& maybe Potter). If you think about left centre I think Foster would be about 6th choice.ie Soliola, Wheeler, Dean, Flannery and perhaps even Wilkin ahead of him. It does seem that whoever is played their gets an injury, & with Roger M out forcing Lomax back in on the wing it was a recipe for a c*ck up, and that, unfortunately, is what occurred.

Foster really needs to improve physically, it will help his game no end, he is just too small for the intensity of SL.

This thread is to morons what UV light is to a fly. Talk about feckless.

Just out of curiosity, where was Flannery this evening? I don't remember mention of an injury ....

i agree and you can add bryn hargreves to the list as well.

He made it worse when he took Foster off by putting Pryce at centre - he was worse and doesn't have the excuse of inexperience. At least Foster tried!
He should have put wello at centre, pryce at F/B or even moore at centre and pryce at S/O.

Scott Moore is pi55 poor,not good enough where as Wheeler does at least have a bit of class.

It was the right decision to bring Foster off. He looked way out of his depth as he did against Leeds, when they scored 3 down that side.

You cant be sentimental about these things, he isn't ready yet. He'll need to go out on loan at some stage soon IMO.