A good point, as I've seen Ashton pop up on the right, make an extra man and contribute to a score. It's not only Ratch attacking the opponents left side of defence, but both half backs could appear there at the same time. Same said about attacking the opponents right side of defence. We just didn't look like we could put on any sort of a move in 2020.

For the time being all we have strengthened is the depth of the pack. We won't know if the pack is actually strengthened until we see how Butler and mulhern fit in and to a degree how sita and doro respond to their arrivals. On paper Crosby was a good signing to strengthen our pack but it didn't work out and the same could happen with both of our new arrivals.

We can definitely keep Hill, Cooper and philbin fresher but we need one of the new arrivals to fit straight in and make an immediate impact which should happen, but we have been burnt before and there are lots of threads on here criticising the success of the clubs recruitment over the past decade or so. I really hope they both go well they have lots of potential, we could do with them being the signings to replace hill and Cooper in the long term, let's hope they are.

Just to bring this back up, if you have a look around the boards, still some stress regarding props, leeds obviously have brought tetavano in on a wedge, but they've also followed that up with signing an absolute nobody.

Wakefield fans are still scrabbling about thinking they're a prop or 2 short and hoping that battye becomes available.

And wigan fans are doing their nut that they've still got clubb, clark and burgess, and not got much firepower up front at all., as i said a while back it seems to be a very difficult position to recruit (well) in, almost as difficult has halfback.


Whilst the 2 we've brought in aren't international world beaters, we may have done some smart business, just in being able to get them in.

Time will tell

I guess the eternal optimist in me thinks the 2 new props HAVE to bring more to the party than Latu has...don’t they?
In terms of 20 metre attack I was thinking that fresher props will “bend the line*” more thus creating space!
* I feel a bit dirty using this phrase... I suppose it’s a Skyism

Yeah i saw this aswell, was bored the other night and read through the others teams topics. And yeah most clubs are saying the same thing about the prop situation which surprises me as i thought we were the ones that had been struggling and everyone was happy.

So does this overall prop shortage mean the club are fighting off suitors for Sita & Latu ?

I think the missing word is “quality”. Do I win?

As clothes props perhaps.....

Maybe it's the wage that puts them off (£s per minute on field)

I think i was most impressed with Sita when he played on the wing once against Hull & ran over his opposite number . I think he had come on as a sub & went off again pretty quickly. We have signed some carp in recent years.

I think that this is the basic problem. As I understand it, even if we were to contribute towards the players wages, their full contract would count against the new club's salary cap.

I expect that the only way out would be to pay the player the full contract but not register them. That's a big ask given the current financial climate.

I expect to see Sita a few times this year, he improved his fitness and looked better than he had previously. But i don't think we will see much of him to be honest, I genuinely think Butler and Mulhern are gonna be brilliant for us but sita will only play to cover injuries or players burning out. But i don't think we'll see Latu at all this year. Sita and Latu's contracts end this year i believe and they'll both just leave at the seasons end.

Latu on the way out...I hear.

Where's he off to? I hear Woolston Rovers are on the look out for a new prop.

The strange thing is ... when he played in those few games when we were short last year (due to virus) I didn't think he did too bad.

First game he was really good and i thought we'd finally found the forward we needed, then got progressively worse the next 2 games, really odd.

I think you're right, in that they'll both leave at the end of 2021, as another contract for either of them is highly unlikely to be offered. If they should leave any earlier, then would anyone be surprised.

I don't think anyone would to be honest, it's a shame really as when we had more interchanges Sita would have been fine for 2 maybe 3 little 10 min wrecking ball stints. But obviously the games moved away from that so if you don't have the fitness it's game over.

Moving on from this...
It seems Latu has been told he is not required to attend training, and subsequently doesn’t. Wire are still looking to offload him.

From a people perspective that's a bit ty if true. Offer a guy a 2 year contract, fly him over the other side of the world then cast him adrift. He must be really rotten in the group if they dont want him anywhere near.

I still dont mind Sita, i don't know what the real reason is for him being on the bad list if anyone can shed light? If it's discipline, how does his record compare to the rest of the squad (though a penalities to mins played ratio might unearth the issue)

I think Sita is on the "bad list" as its perceived that due to (or despite) his size he doesn't really pull his weight/ have sufficient impact/ effective on field time to warrant a spot on the overseas roster

If I were a head coach and you had two fringe players that were highly motivated to prove themselves and putting 100% into every session, you'd want to keep them around as they'd have a positive influence on the squad.

You get the impression with those two that they don't want to put the effort in. And their fitness levels are nowhere near the level they should be.

I'm speculating but hard to see another reason why we're so desperate to get rid.

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, as per my previous post. What are your thoughts RD?

I think the squad like sita have you seen how they celebrate when he has scored. So I dont think were desperate to get him away from the squad. I don't understand his fitness issues he had a period on the wing in the nrl so could do 80mins at one point on his career you can lose fitness but not to the extent he seems to have literally lost 60min !! He is undoubtedly entertaining to watch at times and I have never really thought he has not tried or just here for an early retirement pay day. Had we not been so short on props that we could trust he would have been a great weapon to bring on at the right time in a game.

Latu I dont know what has gone on with him i guess we never will but what a waste and thank god we have a quota spot and maybe a bit of money on the cap to go into the season with and maybe pick up a bargain through the season ?

Moving on still. Wire have just announced Latu has been released. Mutual agreement....paid up in Orford talk.