Apologises to Crossley, i meant Crookes.



I remember when Sky used to show an academy game every week. Can't remember what day it was on, but you could see then the class sinfield had then. He sold Donaldson a huge dummy at Headingley too this year. I won't lie, i've not watched an academy game in years so maybe donaldson has done some great stuff there and deserves his billing, but i have seen nothing to say this lad is future international material. Massive ask of any youngster like.

Hugely-experienced international and captain of GF-winning team three times on the bounce, in "throws huge dummy to 18-year-old" shock.

suspect that neros a doubt,also assume halley is still injured. with wardle and crookes injured our next option in is sykes (assuming we keep menzies at loose). sykes hasnt had best of times in halves last couple of weeks so we may be looking at moving him to to cover for nero, with kearney moving into halves and reardon dropping to FB. finnigan in on wing which is probably easiest position for someone to debut in.

Sir, I give you Mal Meninga, Gene Miles, Eric Grothe, Mark McGaw, Peter Jackson, Wally Lewis, Michael Hancock, Wendell Sailor, Lesley Vainikolo, Lote Tuquiri, Greg Inglis, Israel Folau, Mark Gasnier, Keith Senior. Should they have been forwards?

Penguin played 6 a lot in 1997 and 1998...

TBF, most of those could/can run like the wind and that's what makes them a back, not sure Danny has that kind of pace. However, Shontayne Hape was 6,3 and no speedster but he still made a pretty decent centre IIRC.

The point being there is a swathing circle of opinion in this country at both junior and pro level that larger rugby players should be crow barred into being a forward; hence our perennial lack of quality backs.

Bit of a difference mate... I said too big for 6, not too big to be a back.



Just pointing out a situation involving the 2 players mentioned. Not having a go at Donaldson. Disappointing to see anyone fall for a dummy in that situation though.

He's no bigger the Lewis, Jackson, Gasnier, Inglis. All play(ed) 6.

I can give you the first two but not Gasnier or Inglis, just because both are clearly centres even if they played there on occasion. I'm not saying you can't play 6 if you are big, but you gotta be pretty special. You can't compare Addy to any of the players you mentioned before.

Inglis played 6 as early from 2007 for Melbourne, frequently. And still does.

Gasnier is an established 6 despite starting as a centre.

The caveat being, of all those originally named, the theme remains the same. The obsession with forcing big units to become forwards.

but you can't rule him out either without viewing a few times

probably why the club list him as a loose forward. whilst donaldson is currently a bit on the small side for halfback, addy is currently a little small for loose. as they both develop physically I'd expect them to move to their respective positions. The stage addy is at now he fits in quite nicely at half and as its a position we're needing at the moment dont see a problem using him there now. No doubt in my mind that long term he'll end up in the forwards.

Things is we need to be careful we don't expect too much to early. Not every player makes such a great impact at such an early age.

I know for a fact that Donaldson is aware that he needs to put on some size so he can break the line and be tougher in defence. He's still young and I believe he'll develop into a decent SL player. He's got good core skills so if you add a bit of beef I'm sure he'll come good. He's still very young and is still ahead of many others who at this stage were nowhere near his level, remember Jamie Peacock?

I think Addy too will develop into a decent loose forward. He's another with good core skills and is a natural rugby player, unlike some other backrowers we persist with!

Patience is the key here. When Leeds blooded players like Burrow, McGuire etc in 2001/2002 there were plenty saying they wouldn't make it and should be binned as they certainly didn't set the world alight at first. Thankfully for Leeds those voices were ignored and they were given time to come through. We need to exercise the same patience.

Dont get me wrong, I think huge 3/4's are the way to go, especially ones with the strength of backrowers and pace of olympic sprinters.

I can't tell who you could be referring to. Although you could just have been taking the Mick....

I thought most said that Burrow, McGuire etc would make it as star players from what i recall.

Obviously you need to give youngsters time. I just think they have been billed up a bit too much.



Inglis is just a freak of a player and Gasnier was pretty damn special too.

Thing is both Inglis and Gasnier are better centres. Has either of them played rep rugby at 6?

I just think you got wrong end of stick. Just because i thought Addy was a bit big for a 6, doesn't mean anyone is too big to be a back.



I have seen him a few times. You can't compare him to the names mentioned before even if he does look decent.

As I recall Substander was full of criticism of the younger players at the time. This has been a common theme for a while and still goes on. Go back a year or two and people on there slagged off Ryan Hall and said he wasn't going to be good enough. Same applied to Lee Smith and Carl Ablett. It's happened again this year with people saying Kallum Watkins isn't good enough.

There are a lot of people out there who expect young players to make an immediate impact.

Fair enough mate. I don't really go on that board often with exception of LUFC thread. My only comments about Leeds fans comes from the ones i know. Most of them bill anything they have coming through as brilliant. I remember one telling me how amazing Jordan Tansey and Dwayne Barker will be.

Worrincy is still in the line up for London after last weeks performance why oh why is he still ni the team

I can only assume he has incriminating photos of either McNamara or Hood.

He must know where the bodies are buried...

Worrincy is just spinning out the season before taking up his assistant coach duties as No. 2 to Dale Winton. You heard it here first.

On the plus side, potential new coach Harry Potter may be the only one that can make Worrincy into a good player. The "reverso abilitiano" spell may just do the trick.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/bradford ... 6410703.jp

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/bradford ... 6410703.jp