Dont be silly Dico.
Chris Bridge is playing in a side that is settled and winning so the are mostly on the front foot with defence set.
HKR are constantly backing off and scrambling.
Your example is totally OOC.

Granted I've only seen him play a few times, but when I have his defence has ranged somewhere between shoddy and shambolic. There's no doubt he's a natural born try scorer, but against the likes of SKD, Inglis, Hodges, Sa'u etc. at international level his defence would almost certainly negate that.

And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!

I'd expect the Exiles lineup to be something like:

Hodgson

King
Soliola
Carmont
Richards

Chase
T.Leuluai

O'Meley
Buderus
Puletua
Menzies
L.Anderson
Fitzgibbon

M.Monaghan
Manu
K.Leuluai
Cashmere
_____________________


That's hardly current international standard, especially in the threequarters, but I'd still fancy that team to win against a McNamara XVII if McLennan can motivate them on the night. Will be interested to see how Rangi Chase goes behind a strong pack.

Have you seen us defened as a team?
The players you mentioned would struggle.
Put Welham in a team with a tighter defensive structure and I would put my mortgage on his improving.

Quote ="ChampagneSuperRovers"And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!'" Shenton's defence has been terrific bar a couple of bad games. He's made over twice the tackles Welham has and missed half the amount Welham has. Yes Welham is probably more of an attacking threat but I was commenting on his defence. Infact, Shenton is the only back to feature in the top 25 tacklers this season at 14th. So his defence would clearly be a much much safer option than Welham. Welham has made 83% of tackles this season which means he misses roughly 1 in 5. Shenton has made 96% of his tackles this season which is an impressive figure. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 1&hp2=4873

Quote ="ChampagneSuperRovers"And Shenton won't be the same? With even less attacking threat mind!!'" Shenton's defence has been terrific bar a couple of bad games. He's made over twice the tackles Welham has and missed half the amount Welham has. Yes Welham is probably more of an attacking threat but I was commenting on his defence. Infact, Shenton is the only back to feature in the top 25 tacklers this season at 14th. So his defence would clearly be a much much safer option than Welham. Welham has made 83% of tackles this season which means he misses roughly 1 in 5. Shenton has made 96% of his tackles this season which is an impressive figure. www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 1&hp2=4873

On the Welham debate – he is one of two left centres in the squad along with Atkins... while we don’t know if Welham can step up to international football, we do have the answer to whether Atkins can or not (so I’m not sure why he is in the squad at all)

Maybe the answer is to play one centre out of position and go with Shenton and Bridge... at least they have shown they can handle international football as various stages

Tomkins and Bridge I agree with you on, but Welham's a defensive liability, McGillvary has played only a handful of super league games which in my view means he's far too inexperienced to be facing the aussies and would be found out quickly, and Tom Briscoe I think is overrated but tbh we don't have many other options anyway

Obviously I don't doubt any player would improve in a structured defensive line, but I've seen him miss 1 on 1 tackles that he should be making on plenty of occasions.

Atkins and to a lesser extent Shenton were made to look daft at times last year, a game like this should give us a clue or 2 to Welhams chances, id have played him just to have a look.

Picked on form players my , we got our 6 and 7 getting rave reviews most weeks yet one doesnt get picked when the squads crying out for a 6.

Yeomans omission is a mystery, impressed me every game ive seen him this year, Jermaine prob wants a few more games under his belt, same for Foster, look at them with a full season under their belts.

No idea why Peacocks in there, class as he is, back in after what, 3/4 games all season, certainly no form to speak of, id have given a run out to the young lad at bradford instead (name escapes me).

All in all, a poor selection of a squad from McNamara, same old, same old.

No, Shenton is comfortably a better defender than Welham, whose defence is awful. He has missed 89, 59, and currently 38 tackles in the last 3 years, he has been in the top ten missed tacklers for the last three years, not one other centre has been in the top 10 missed tacklers in any of the last three years. In fact there hasnt been a centre other than Welham in the top 10 missed tacklers since 2003

Peacock over Mossop is truly ridiculous.

Hopefully Wilkin can find himself another broom to take himself out of action, he is not international standard.

Although I cant argue with the statistics presented - you must consider much more than made & missed tackle, for instance dominant, passive, good read / poor read / spacing error etc.... Hull KR often defend up and in - leaving Welham 3/4 on 2 - his read of this play and his % of shut downs would be pretty high.

Also please consider the players who defend around the said players & the league positions of their club.

I would of liked to have seen Mossop in there.



I would of agreed with you earlier this year, but his form has been very good as of recent. One of the only players in the squad I would consider a 'form' selection. However, I don't think he'll make the 18 and if he does there's a chance he'll be at 6. He looked pretty goof at 6 for us, but I would still rather see an established stand off in there, not a loose forward.

No real kicking game to talk off, only seen him when you came to us (Hudds) and he certainly aint a 6.

I completely agree with you, there is much more to a situation than statistics. However, as somebody else pointed out above, he has been in the top 10 missed tackles for the past 3 years running. That is not a team issue, that's an individual issue. Harlequins are awful defensively but their centres don't feature so far.

There is no doubting his defensive would be poor no matter what team he played in, yes it may improve in some, but it would still be poor.

In all honesty his kicking game is one of his stronger points, he may have had an off game against you.

But I would not want him to be at 6 if it wasn't a last resort, I'm clutching at straws to justify McBanana's squad selection and that certainly isn't easy.

Which makes it all the more laughable since we have Stand Offs not picked

I completely concur. Although I wouldn't particularly want Brown to be our 1st choice 6 either, I'd rather have him than Sinfield, O'Loughlin or Wilkin.

I think truly ridiculous is a bit strong

Mossop is a good standard Super league player but peacock has shown for several years that he is a world class forward and just returning from a long lay-off. While I don’t agree with picking a team on reputation, if you are going to do it then you may as well pick those with the highest international reputations (and that includes Peacock)

Bigger picture my friend, look at the 7 he'd play with, he might not be the best 6 in the comp but put him together with brough and imo they are the best combination.

Oh yeah I know, definitely pairing Brough up with Brown would have it's advantages and that's what I would have gone with personally against the exiles.

What I meant is when everybody was available (i.e. Widdop), I wouldn't select Brown. But as Widdop isn't available I would have Brown as the next choice at this moment in time.

I'll hold my breath on Widdop for now, not done anything special to warrant getting picked yet bar the fact he plays in Melbourne, tbf not seen a lot of him this season.

I've seen bits and bobs and he's looked in outstanding form. Arguably one of the form players in the NRL to date. I was never a fan of him before this season but he seems to be raising a few eyebrows this year.

LMS has been excellent for Saints this year too, and again should be included in this game to see if he can step up a level, instead of Carvell - who has proven in the past he isnt capable of stepping up.