Well the Kyle Wood rumour can pretty much go away now. He's been given squad number 15 by Huddersfield, so they clearly think he's going nowhere.


(Admittedly Ferres has been given 11 despite being transfer listed, but the point remains)

Luckily the guy is here to play rugby, not appear on Eggheads.

We'll soon be able to see for ourselves, apparently

Guess in your view you don't need any intelligence to be able to read games, understand tactics and communicate with the rest of the team then?

to be honest, there are many sports stars, very skilled, highly regarded and effective sportspeople, across many different sports, who come across as not the sharpest knife in the box.

Intelligence? innate skill? 'Differently' skilled? I don't pretend to know the answer and I truthfully don't have a clue, but there's clearly a difference between most scientist and doctor etc types and a lot of sports people, musicians or artists.

I agree. If he can steer the team around the field and is a good communicator within the team, I don't care whether he makes the odd slip when being interviewed. Good luck to the lad.

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid

Well it never did Jamie Peacock any harm did it?

Admittedly he became more articulate later in his career but during his Bradford days he sounded like a seal chewing on a penguin during his interviews.

Our own coach and club legend Mr J Lowes was hardly a mastermind contender either.

Therefore, no, I do not see it as being a high priority in RL to be able to quote the works of Kafka.

Isn't that a type of kebab?

Yeah I don't do culture.

Yeah, of course you do, everyone does culture, it is, after all, infinitely varied and the world is full of different cultures and sub-cultures, even within one society.

I do like kebabs though.

Some kebabs are best avoided. According to my man on the inside at Porton Down that goes for some cultures as well.

I see Jacks is going to arrive a full two weeks before the season starts due to him having to obtain a visa! Can't help but think an organizing s/h needs more time to get upto speed in a new competition, new country etc!!

With the new format as it is he has first 22 games to get up to speed for middle 8s.

To be fair, it's not just 2 weeks. He was here before Christmas too.

For no more than 2 weeks i would suggest

was speaking about him showing up well in the friendlies, though it may well be that he misses the lot - though the club must surely have been savvy enough to recognise that possibility.

I think the best way to go, if he doesn't get cleared in time to play the friendlies, is to see how he goes in training and if he's looking good, give him a 12 month deal with an option for a 2nd 12 months based on performance. You've then, as others have said, got the whole of the regular season to see how he goes. Meaning we'll come up to the middle 8's knowing if he's the guy we need or if we need to draft in a replacement.

I suspect the word on trial is code for we will announce his contract when he gets a visa

Interesting at end of article we're looking bringing another player on trial to bolster our back line. I actually think our back line is SL quality and has plenty of depth.

depends how close to fitness Campbell is. If hs going to be missing for a while and Thomas is needed in halves if Jacks doesnt work out then another fullback could be useful. Also theres still a massive question mark as to whether Nielsens going to comeback or not. Silence from club around that is pretty deafening.

I would kill for a better fullback. Campbell seems a "work in progress" or a gamble at best, as he's as yet unproven for full time RL. Clare is a better winger IMO and the other options again are probably best in other positions or are still quite young.

The fact it's a trial though suggests it's not going to be a proven quality player, otherwise there'd be no need to trial them.

I'd prefer Clare at FB IMHO

He was immense when he played there against Salford

He was, but he was also garbage when he played there in another game (I forget which one, but he got dropped the week after because of it).

I would probably agree he's the best current option, but I'd still rather have a new specialist fullback and Clare on the wing. Actually I'd rather have Mullaney back, but that ship has sailed....