Now we know Orford is gone for the season he must get his chance. We are running out of options and kearney is not the answer at SH.

The only other option is a loan signing IMO or its season over.

Thoughts?

He should at least get a game or two to see if he's ready. Maybe Wire on Sunday is not the right time but if he's good enough, he's old enough as the saying goes........

Give him a pinch of snuff and throw the lad on the pitch. Might just play a blinder.

Considering we can pretty much write the season off now in my opinion, I don't see any reason to not let him be first choice for at least 5 or 6 games and let him get used to playing in the first team.

Anything's better than Mr. Predictable Sykes in the halves, and regular game time in the first team will be an excellent benefit to what is supposed to be a great prospect.

We're not going to be winning anything this year, so why not use the season to build for next year?

TBH we really do not have much of a choice but to throw Southernwood in at the deep end. Kearney and Sykes simply cannot play together in the halves and if McNamara persists with this combination then we will create absolutely nothing in the remaining games of the season. It will also mean that we are wasting our best available back by playing him out of position at scrum half when he has clearly shown that he is much better at full back.

What we could do with is an experienced organiser on loan, preferably one who can kick, too. I bet they're on the blower to Wigan as we speak . . .

What have we possibly got to lose?

Hope we do give Southernwood a chance at some stage.

Agreed..

Yes, our key men playing in position would be Kearney at FB, Orford at 7, L'Estrange at hooker and Menzies at loose. Now that lot of playmakers and attackers can be guaranteed to play proper together, so why would McNamara change it around? I mean, that was the line-up at Murrayfiled, and it worked great there just like you'd expect.

I would also like to see Southernwood given a shot. However, we do need to be careful not to throw lots of these youngsters in together for long periods.

Give him ago, he's proved how good he is at academy level. Southernwood at 6 and L'Estrange at 7, with Godwin at 9. We just might unearth another Tomkins, Eastmond or Myler, they were all given there chance at a young age.

I understand that there will be a need to play players out of position in our current predicament however it seems pointless to continue in this to play a centre and full back as our half back combination when we have a young half back in the first team squad.

If we continue with Kearney and Sykes as our halves then we will struggle to create as we saw in the second half when we had repeat sets on the line but lacked the player who could unlock the defence. It may well be Southerwood may not yet be that player but I feel it is certainly worth giving him a chance rather than trying to win games without a recognised half back on the field.

I also remember having to play a young half back in 1998 when Shaun Edwards left, and he didn't turn out too bad

Couldn't agree more.

It certainly worked last season.

I say give him a shot but we need to make sure we don't ruin him. He may be ok in attack but where do you put him in defence when we have some pretty average defenders out wide? You can bet the opposition would try and target him if he was defending on the fringes, and in the middle you don't a lightly built kid in front of the likes of Lauaki, Puletua, Morley etc. Even so, I'd give him a few runs off the bench to begin with to see how he goes.

Can I pass Macca your number?

I'd wait until we have Platt back in centres, or shift Menzies there. Then I'd play Southernwood there because he would have a more experienced head next to him plus Platt and Menzies are both good defenders.

If he has Menzies on one side ok, but Platt's not a good defender!

Platt is pretty soild in defence.

You could always try and grab Danny Orr from Harlequins before he goes to Cas.
We might even let you have Burrow when he is fit till the end of the season


Other than that you must play Southernwood and at least give him a chance.
He has got to be better than Sykes at SH.

He's getting better at playing centre as the position lends itself to fewer bloopers but he's not "pretty solid". He's just about adequate. If I were the opposition I'd target Southernwood all the more if he defended next to Platt.

There are no easy fixes. It'd be easy to throw the kid in but the coach needs to carefully work out where and when.

11 missed tackles in 9 games isn't too bad, plus as you say, he's still learning the position and its certainly better than if Sykes was in the centres.

Menzies would be best option, but we can't affor to take him out of the pack till one of Langley or Lynch are back.

If Southernwood is on the light side and is in danger of getting hurt because of that then don't play him, otherwise give him a shot.

I think his time has come he's surly seen to be the future it worked for Saints.