...maybe on reflection...

Stick with Thomas.

There's no doubting Thomas looked lively in the position

...and stick with the Thomas / Mathers partnership?

It was better than I expected and seems a fair bet for the interim, y'know, until the messiah arrives....

I don't think Rohan is daft enough to believe a partnership of Thomas and Mathers will see us competing with SL sides for promotion.

For the meantime I would say it's the best available to us. When Gaskell is back then obviously he's going to be playing 6. I do think Thomas has the making of a good Scrum half. Hopefully Smith can bring out some Mongrel in him and get him directing play play as he wants it. He has certainly got a nice pass on him.

Get him taking the line on a bit and I'd back him to score a few as well.

Gotta be patient with him though as supporters. If he does more good things than bad things then that's OK. I don't expect him to be the polished article but I think there is definitely potential there.

Finally, a rumour!

Kieran Moss, 22 year old reserve grade fullback from Parramatta. Apparently we've offered him a deal for the rest of the season.

Hmm does seem strange with Clare playing so well. But maybe he might want to put Clare at centre. Only thing I found on Moss is he's a British passport holder and was top try scorer in Toyota cup a few years a go

Could be in the mould of a Mullaney/Kearney type of player?

We've missed that kind of player so could be.

A 22 year old who can play full back and maybe play in the halves?

That sounds a lot like Oscar Thomas.

Ha, it does!

Not to bother though, as his name has been bandied about on here someone else will probably come in for him.....

Not seen anywhere he can also play HB. Tried to do a bit of digging and from the highlights i've seen, he looks like a top support player (which has been a problem this year). Think he is someone who could chime in the line too. Maybe Smith might keep Clare at FB and put Moss on the wing (where I think he's played before) I think he's got plenty of pace on him too. But i don't think he's Mullaney/kearney type player who can go at HB.

Had a browse on twitter and some over there think he'll rip it up over here .Pretty positive comments. Someone also said he was due to sign for Saints halfway through last year but got injured.

British passport means he'll count as non fed trained but more importantly won't need a visa to come over here. Playing requirements have got higher this year to qualify for a visa iirc, which has been a problem bringing players over.

Is he actually better than what we've already got is big question. If he isn't then no point bringing him over just for sale of adding competition for places. We need to improve quality not quantity.

....and the principal area we need to up the quality, or indeed to get some quality, is at scrum half. If this possible new recruit can't play, or hasn't actually played, scrum half I don't don't see the point, to be honest. We've already got 'fillers in'.

Better wingers, centres, hookers etc are fine in principle and who would argue with improving the squad anywhere, but these are not what we [ineed[/i, what we [ineed[/i is a scrum half who can take us round the pitch, break the line and be an attacking threat ball in hand.

Honestly i don't think we are going to see this mystery SH unless Smith pulls something out of the hat. Ferres hasn't managed to get someone for 8 months and i don't believe he is capable of getting the RIGHT man for us at this late stage. We're in JUNE and just 2 months form the middle 8s starting now. I think we've got around a month left to get a 7. Getting someone in just before the 8s would be a ridiculous situation. It would take him the middle 8s just to get used to playing with the team.

Yes the SH is a priority but that doesn't mean we can just ignore the other areas we need to improve in the hope that our mystery 7 appears in the next few weeks. We've moaned about our defence out wide all season. Caro had a shocker on Saturday and Blythe (who played well TBF on Saturday) has been poor all year. I think Moss will either go out wide, or he will go at FB and Clare will move into centre/wing to try and solve that weakness.

That was point I was trying to make. If he's an improvement over current fullback options then fine, but if he's just someone on a par or who offers something a little different then I'd have reservations. Especially if that then left us short of funds/cap space to get a genuine 7.

2012 Toyota Cup (NSW youth comp) he was at FB for Penrith for most of the season but did get some runs at SO. Top try scorer too. 2013 he was at FB for Penrith in the Holden Cup reserve grade comp for the whole season. It seems he was regarded at Penrith in the same role Will Smith currently has, i.e a FB who also plays SO, but was injured when they needed someone to step up and Smith made it his own. For cap space, Penrith shipped him out and the Eels took him.

Given recent coaching history and this guy's recent career path you'd expect Smith to be very familiar with him.

On his own merits he looks like the kind of player we need. What he doesn't look like is the kind of player we need right now. But, I honestly do not believe we are going to get the kind of player we need right now and until the off season.

If he improves the side then I don’t care where he plays. Just because he's not the highest priority shouldn't preclude us trying to recruit better players.

IMO Clare is better on the wing.

If we couldn’t get a scrum half in the close season or in the first 5 months it’s pretty unlikely we’ll get one when the business end of the season approaches since anyone worth their salt is going to be signed up…unless Smith can pull a rabbit out of a hat.

A pacey fullback that can chime in the line and be a link is something we’ve missed since Mullaney left and he’d take some heat off Gaskell.

I agree, another attacking threat will help take some of the pressure off Gaskell and TBH, we didn't do too bad last year without a 7 but with a decent 1 and 6.

I think there ARE 7's out there, but I think they're beyond our price range, so unless we can off-load some of the dead wood from the squad we're between a rock and a hard place recruitment wise

Absolutely, we might well have 3/4 players who can play FB but how many are SL quality. Clare is probably the only one and even then I think his best position lies on the wing or centre.

Halfback, fullback, centre were my priority signings and in that order so I'm happy if we managed to sign a quality FB. I don't know anything about this player but it seems Rohan very clearly knows plenty about him and that's enough for me at the moment.

hasn't exactly been rock of consistency and he looked decent on Saturday, so you never know where you are to be honest.

I'm hearing more rumours about Leon Pryce joining us next year - possibly taking on some coaching responsibilities at some level too. Nothing concrete or signed yet though.

That could have changed with Rohan taking over,