Riley is making too many costly mistakes to be left at full back and when attacking the try line. Surely it is time to move him back on the wing to take advantage of his pace. Hopefully he will be a good full back one day but he seems to have no confidence at the moment.

Please don't get me wrong, he is hardly the worst performer we have at the moment and he isn't the only problem at Warrington but I see full back as a really important position which needs a safe pair of hands.

Who is with me, who is against?

All in all with a swirling wind to contend with yesterday I thought that Rileys handling, especially from the high bombs, was pretty good - (the Leeds try accepted).

I thought he had the chance to make the full back position his own, but, sadly, he has not convinced so far. He doesn't attack the ball that is kicked to him, preferring to let it bounce. He doesn't carry the ball correctly when running it back.
I would also put him back on the wing, and not yet think of bringing Penny back. Not after watching him play for the reserves on Saturday.

the thing is he does the hard part by catching the ball and then runs hard into the line but seeems inept at holding it...cost us the game yesterday i am afraid.

He needs to be taken out of the firing line before he is left with no confidence at all.

Don't see why people think he has no confidence - if anything it's the opposite. He made that crucial error after sweeping up a tricky kick behind his own try line and then backing himself to get over the line and try to make a break, carrying the ball in one hand. Over-confidence if anything.

He was actually at least partly at fault for all 3 of Leeds' tries.

Abletts try; A horrible mix up between him and King where neither of them took responsibility to clear up a pretty mundane kick.

Sinfields try; Poor positioning allowed a 40/20. The resultant scrum set up the Leeds attack and Sinfield eventually brushed aside several tacklers - including Riley - to score.

McGuires try; Not for the first time in the game Riley spilled the ball in the tackle.

Leeds spent all afternoon hoofing the ball to Riley and their tactics eventually earned them rich dividends. They are obviously able to see what most posters don't seem to want to i.e. That Riley is a liability, and really isn't up the standard required.

I'm not blaming him for yesterday's defeat in any way shape or form but if Warrington let Chris Riley leave, would Leeds, Saints, Wigan etc. sign him? I think the answer would be no. If he ain't good enough for them, he ain't good enough for us.

True he spurned an opportunity as well fumbling a ball which should have gone straight to Hicks

Question Where is reardon in all this ?

Yeah I agree with you on that, even after that mistake it didn't seem to knock his confidence, he took quite a few tricky kicks with ease. I just think he might be a bit too small and not strong enough to play there.

You could say that for most of our squad

Awful, nowhere near good enough 24 points in 2 games.

attitudes like this im sure are brilliant for the lad's confidence

i personally reckon for a 21 year old to put his hand up for a key position that requires a lot of confidence in a squad who seem to be lacking confidence in general is awesome and i reckon he is making a good fist of it

i'd sooner the guy be getting involved and making some high profile mistakes than hiding and not coming into anyone's attention...riley is a top prospect for the future and its games like yesterday that will add to his experience imo

he certainly wasn't the only player to be spilling a lot of ball yesterday, from either side for that matter

IMO yesterday showed whilst Reardon is still injured Hicks should be at Full back with Riely on the wing.

Fullback is becoming a bit of a problem now.

Hicks is crap there, folk just walk past him, and I've never seen him make a break from there.

Riley isn't doing the best of jobs right now. He's making errors, which are proving costly etc. He's also joing the line, but hasn't got the handling to exploit overlaps etc, that's frustrating me at times, couple of times this happened yesterday, 3 on 2 etc, but it dies with Chris. It's easy to criticise from the stands though.

Bridge - Eek ? Would be a risk. Attacking wise you'd gain, big question mark over the defensive stuff, positioning.

Forget Reardon for a month or two.

Murphy from the academy ? Could he be the answer.

Quins scored a couple of tries against Salford with delicut grubbers behind the winger but infront of the fullback, we need to have somebody who's positional sense will get them in the right place.

I'd play him at wing or, if appropriate, give him a rest. I agree with SEB, I don't think it's a confidence thing. As a full back, by the nature of the position, he's often going to be running straight into the opposition's biggest players. For someone who is relatively small, he's bound to cough up possession more than we might expect.

As an aside, I hope people don't get on his back a la Kevin Penny and that any critcism is constructive.

Word of the week?

It has nothing to do with confidence, but the lad isn't up to the standard i want to see in a warrington shirt. I know people will come on and say he gives his best and i acknowledge that, but they can't keep saying he is a kid and he's learning his trade. He is twenty one years old with a season and a half nearly of first team rugby under his belt and i have yet to see enough to convince me he will be a good first team player.

happens almost every week and last season, it's costing us games.

Who Harry Houdini living it up on us!! I think if a player is injured & still getting paid which they all do nowadays anyway they should be made to come to the games END OF! They do in football

Why not? Promoting a young prospect seemed to do wonders for Wigan this week.

I already feel that a number of 'youngsters' have been promoted into the starting line up ahead of schedule due to injuries.

Surely if these younger youngsters were good enough they would already have had a chance in the side due to poor performances.

With Tony Smith now at the helm I am much more confident that the best 13 players will be out on the pitch and we will see a lot more fight (not fights in case L. Anderson is reading)

Not always; depends how much the first team coach spends time and shows interest in the reserve grades. I know for a fact Tony Smith has already been watching some of the other teams train so let us see what will happen.

Agreed.

He should be a (cheap) squad player to provide cover on the wing, nothing more.

I wish the club had given Varkulis this many chances, before offloading him.