Couldn't agree more, looks like Jimmy won't drop King however badly he plays

What a shame, but I'm not surprised as I think we know that would happen given his couple of times being dropped last year and Lowes' comments at the forum.

Chris Riley
Chris Hicks
Martin Gleeson
Matt King
Paul Johnson
Lee Briers
Michael Monaghan
Adrian Morley
Mickey Higham
Garreth Carvell
Louis Anderson
Ben Westwood
Vinnie Anderson
Chris Bridge, Paul Wood, Paul Rauhihi, Matty Blythe.

Tyrone McCarthy, Ben Harrison as 18 and 19

Agreed Penny should not have been dropped, but he will bounce back from it a better player.

i think its right that penny is dropped. as much as i want him to succeed the only time he will do anything is if he has open space ahead of him. its been said before, but he does concede more tries than he scores.


penny cant defend well enough. i think with Johnson there kings defence will improve.

if i were king, i would feel playing with penny that you would have to defend the winger as well as the centre, but if johno goes there, there will be no doubt in my mind that he would be strong defensively, so king can concentrate on his own centre.

=redYou may care if you carry on posting that sort of rubbish and end up banned, have you read the warnings issued today??

To be fair the necessary decisions have been made. Gleesons fit so he's in. We need to strangthen the left as whichever way you slice it - it didn't work.

I'd put King on the wing & play Jonno at centre. But there has to ba a concern after he was turned inside out by a second rower straight out of a scrum. Bridge to cover 1-7 from the bench dependant on how injurys hold & how we're playing.

To win this game we need our back row to be on fire & to Bosc at every opportunity.

I agree, although Penny wasn't to blame for our defeat to Saints he did not exactly fill me with confidence, over running a passes (although some were poor passes), getting picked up and walked backwards when returning kicks and he never seems to find the right position in the defensive line. For instance they score tries in our corner and Hicks always had to check inside and ended up getting tackled instead of scoring (altough I concede there is a bit more to that debate than Kevin Penny alone).

I think Kevin Penny has the potention to be a really good player but needs to work on his game and build IMO (he is built more like a footballer). When we have the talent of Gleeson and V.Anderson coming back into the team it is not the biggest insult in the world to be dropped.

But surely he could have been at 18 or 19 instead of Harrison or McCarthy?

I know there are a lot of Penny fans out here but I wouldn't play him until April / May. He needs fast tracks not slugfests where he will not get a sniff of the ball. You need your wingers to run from DH on tackles 1 and 2 in games at this time of year and he is terrible at this. It his not just his defence, his all round game is poor. Taylor welch would be a better prospect at the moment

To be honest I thought his nerve had gone on Friday night, he was fumbling around with pretty simple kicks. When he picked up the ball to return the kick he was getting dragged back and his bottle went when trying to tidy up a saints knock on near our own line with Wilkin ready to smash him as soon as he picked it up.

Whatever confidence he did have will have gone after Friday night.
I think he would benefit more from a loan spell at Widnes / Leigh rather than going back to the reserves.
Harsh but see you in April Kev.

Thing is, IMO Johnson is not quick enough to be a winger, he will always be a centre/second rower to me. So, hopefully King will start on the wing because he is much quicker. Would like to see Penny return to the squad soon, and hopefully be more determined to stay in it.

The squad for me:

Riley
Hicks
Glees
Johno
King
Briers
Monas
Morley
Higham
Carvell
Landerson
Westwood
Vanderson

Subs:
Wood
Rauhihi
Blythe
Bridge

Play Bridge on the wing and King on the bench.

Hasn't Taylor Welch gone back to the US?

He's not, King is so, so, so, slow. It's unreal.

Catalans 19

1 Clint Greenshields
2 Cyril Stacul
3 Steven Bell
4 Adam Mogg
5 Dimitri Pelo
6 Thomas Bosc
7 Shane Perry
8 David Ferriol
9 Casey McGuire
10 Jerome Guisset
12 Jason Croker
13 Gregory Mounis
14 Dane Carlaw
15 Jean Philippe Baile
16 Olivier Elima
17 Cyrille Gossard
19 Julien Touxagas
22 Jamal Fakir
24 Rémi Casty


So Cyril Stacul poses so much of a threat that jimmy feels the need to drop Kevin Penny.... lord help us

TBF I havent seen him sprint in Quite a While.

TANCW I now think that Bridge should play wing with King on the bench, much better than my sugestion

We know Penny is a local lad and all but isn't that fact clouding some people's judgment here.
Cullen was a very poor coach and the only reason he stayed coach was because he was Moran's mate and a local lad.
The same seems to be happening to Penny he is a very poor player and yet he remains in the 1st team picture in most fans minds.
People say we never give Local talent a break and were always calling them but it doesn't matter weather your from Lithuania or Longford if you cant play rugby then you cant play rugby.
Matt king isn't blameless but for some people it seems easier to point blame at an overrated Australian on a big wage rather than somebody from your own town.

The left edge will be massively susceptible to attacking at pace.

Wolves squad to face Catalans: Chris Riley, Chris Hicks, Paul Johnson, Chris Bridge, Matt King, Martin Gleeson, Michael Monaghan, Adrian Morley, Mickey Higham, Garreth Carvell, Louis Anderson, Ben Westwood, Ben Harrison, Lee Briers, Paul Wood, Vinnie Anderson, Paul Rauhihi, Matty Blythe, Tyrone McCarthy.

The above is the order in which the squad is printed in the Warrington Guardian.

Wouldnt it be quite interesting if this was the actual playing order for Saturday( with Blythe and McCarthy obviously the 2 omitted)

Bridge at centre,King on the wing,Gleeson and Monaghan 6 and 7.
Briers and Vinnie on the bench.

Lowes would go up greatly in my estimation if this was in fact the case ( and even more so if he played Bridge at stand off and Gleeson in his normal position.

The best move IMO, think the team looks stronger collectively without him in. Hopefully this will be the making of him and he will have a chance to work on the weaker aspects of his game and come back a better player.

Very similar to your in-sightful view on Chris Riley last year.


At the risk of a ban - you are a =redNo thanks - one more and you WILL get a ban.

I'd like to see : (From the 19 Man Squad)

1. Riley
2. Hicks
3. Gleeson
4. Bridge
5. Johnson / King
6. Briers
7. Monaghan

Maybe sway towards King on the wing. I think he's too slow to play there really, but it gives you an option to play PJ in the backrow from the bench.

Bench of :

Rauhihi, Wood, Johnson & Blythe.

2 Props & 2 blokes who can pretty much solve you a problem 1-13.

That's a bit contentious. I don't think arguably Cullen was a poor coach. After all he did take us from relegation to top 6, I just think he made some poor choices and lost control of the dressing room.

I don't remember giving any insightful view about Riley last year but Chris Riley has had 18 month's of learning to get were he is today and that is what penny needs but not in the first team because results mean more know than ever.

whilst it's easy to point out penny's defensive mishaps perhaps people should focus on the number of times he gets left in the lurch by his centre and back rower,king and louis anderson frequently come out of the line together,miss tackles or fail to stop an offload and leave penny stranded.
penny is a young man with plenty to learn but how many times is he going to be villified before he loses interest in the game altogether.
the players on the pitch who should be helping him through games are in fact jeopardising the future of one of the brightest prospects we have had in years.
how many wingers would relish playing in a team where you get given hardly any decent ball in attack or any cover in defence?

It was the year before....

I thought everyone was on there final warning no?

Thats bang out of order after everything thats gone on today.

There should be zero tolerance to that kind of abuse.

Fair enough and Riley proved me wrong and i hope Penny does, despite what i say, but at this moment in time were conceding to many try's down his wing and there costing us match points, imo penny is to blame more than king and that's why i agree with dropping him.

Chris Riley does try his best and gives 100% etc etc but he's far away from being a finished article.