With saints signing Lance Hohaia today and with lomax, wheeler, gaskell all there which can play in the halves.... leon maybe leaving.........

The Saints fans on the Hohaia thread seem to be mostly convinced he's leaving...

How bad is/was his injury ?

He'd certainly add something to the team.

Lets hope there's some legs in the rumour.

st helens sign a current new zealand international and we sign their crocked cast-off.....I hope not

Qualified Physio/Osteopath are we?

When is he injured till?

Till (sic) he's better.

Until we make an official approach

Why didn't we sign Lance Whatsit instead?

Not again!

No doubt an influencing factor for Pryce will be (a) whether he can stick his groin back together again, and (b) whether he actually wants to remain at Saints. There has been no word on him re-signing for next season but if he's going to spend all THIS season on the physio's bench I should imagine Saints won't be too keen.

So far he has another month to go before returning. But he only lasted three minutes on his last return, doing even more damage thanks to an absolutely brilliant long kick.

So he's fully recovered from last seasons neck injury ? and now he's out with an aggravated groin injury ?

not at all I just don't want us to sign another player that will have spent much of the previous season injured. Especially considering his age. Pryce has had his time at the Bulls. We are a club in transition who are looking to plan for the future. Signing Leon would be living in the past. He's too old now to be a part of that future.

On another note.....If saints can find the marquee signings, why can't why?

exactly my point....do we want to sign a player who is struggling with injuries who will join us at the age of 30?

I'd sooner give Gleeson a contract 'till the end of the season than sign Leon for next year. It's not like Leon hasn't had his fair share of trouble in the past

We did last year. Orford. Look how that worked out.

I agree with you on Pryce though. I'm not keen at all to be honest considering his age and recent injury issues.

fair point

Fully recovered from neck injury yes. The surgery last season fixed it.

He pulled his groin in our friendly with Hudds and was out for a month. He returned for our game against the Dragons and lasted three minutes - a fabulous long kick pulling the muscle from the bone in the groin, which was worse than the original injury. He was then scheduled to be out for two months, of which he has another month to go. If he comes back and the injury recurs, it is likely he will need surgery, in which case we wouldn't expect to see him back this season.

he's replacing eastmond not pryce......so don't get all excited again like last time this topic showed it's face...

I dont believe at this stage it is on the cards but will leon want to stay?
hohaia has played 7 but primarily 1 or 6. I think he is more of a 6 than a 7. wheeler, gaskell et al mainly 6's ?you would have to ask the logic of keeping another 6 above bringing in a 7 and potentially slowing youngsters development or encouraging them to go elsewhere like smith.
You think you will make a massive play for him when your current coach has only seen him play for 10 mins or so competitively by may?when he is gonna want a big deal and you have adequate players to replace?

We're bringing him in to replace Eastmond, at 7. He's played at 6 in the NRL but not 7 (just at youth level). No decision has been made with regard to Leon Pryce yet. There is mention in the press statement that the idea is for Hohaia to be starting 7 but also to provide experience for our young players. I hope that is true. Either way, we need another halfback as we wouldn't have enough of them to cover for injury without a replacement for Kyle.

Cheers, I'd missed his comeback and thought he was still suffering from the neck injury.
He would be a hell of a gamble for us to take, if he were available

Still not convinced he wont play at 6. big risk bringing a player accross to play in an unfamiliar position!!

Well, I'd hardly call 7 an unfamiliar position from 6! Jonny Lomax is a 6 but at present he's not doing too badly playing at 7. The two positions are pretty interchangeable these days IMO. He's also played at 1 and 9 so is handy to have around for injury cover.

Lance Hohaia is an awesome signing for St.Helens. This is why the Saints have remained one of the top teams since super league began in 1996. They have always signed quality, and replaced quality with quality.

According to Royce Simmons today, Pryce is six weeks away from a return. He's played less than 5 mins competitive rugby in our 1st team since last July.



Still a class act IMO, and I'd love him to sign another one or two year deal, but in Lomax and Gaskell we have two promising kids for the future so I wouldn't want to hamper their development too much by signing him long term.