Interesting looking back at this.

If you had told me that Currie would have struggled to get back to top form then get injured again my verdict on our pack would be oh dear, bottom 4 awaits.

But it has exceeded my expectations. Hill and Cooper back to their old selves again as well as a late career resurgence for Westwood. BMM after a slow start has looked the part and Jack Hughes is an improved player - previously he would have been on my 'get rid at the end of the season' list. Daryl Clark has had a good year as well.

I still think we are a bit light on cover and can't afford any other major injuries, but most of our rivals will be in a similar situation.

Good to see some of our forwards throwing effective & timely passes too.

Agree, I commented on some of Hill’s passing last night as being very slick.

There was a passage last night where George King shipped it on to Site who shipped it on to Chris Hill WTF!!

Amazing but not surprising that players are improving with decent coaching. It does show the flaws in the previous regime where teams arrived and did not improve.

Cooper is playing better as is Hill and giving away fewer daft penalties...but Crosby and Westwood have tipped the balance.
That is why we are winning again while the halfbacks are not at top form.....cant wait til they do.

....disappointed with BMM so far tbh honest.

With BMM I think they are looking at ways to give him more of an impact. There seems to be set plays to try and get him running into gaps out wide.

The whole pack is playing at a different this season. The noticeable drop in intensity no longer exists. The platform for the halves to operate is much better.

....and when those halves eventually do....!

So Hill, Cooper and Westwood did not play at this level during the TS era?

Not towards the end of Smith’s tenure they didn’t.

Dead right ... Hill, Cooper & Westwood are better than last year.

Dont know where you got that from?
Nobody on here has give that indication, never mind say as much.
The total TS pack have never hit the heights of the pack he inherited, full or in part under the TS tendure.

The pack peaked around 2010-12, it didn't peak in the Lowes or Cullen era.

This is true.
Nobody said otherwise to that either.

To be honest we never really looked to rebuild that from 2014-18, with likes of Cox, Bailey, England et al. Whether that was lack of quality forwards available I’m not sure, but looking back the recruitment was entrusted to one man a little too much. Maybe it should have involved someone else, but I’m sure we’ll be better for the experience anyway.

PS this is not a dig at the previous regime just a postulation.

Pps
no it is, and right so.

How many were Smith signings in say, 2011?

From memory
Solomona Carvell Waterhouse

....please correct if I'm wrong and add to it.

They were signed under Cullen and Lowes but the point is that under TS they were playing at a much higher level than they did in 2007-09 when they had first joined.

Similarly when I I said above that I have been impressed with the improvement in Hughes, Clark, Hill this season...surely Price gets credit for this or do we have to say they are just "TS signings that he inherited".

One of the most encouraging things so far about Price (who I am feeling a lot more positive about now than when he was appointed) is that most of the improvement this season seems to be down to players that were already here playing at a higher level than last year plus the new structure he has brought to the team. It hasn't been down to new signings who with the noted exception of Charnley have been decent rather than transformational.

Carvell was signed with Higham at the end of 2008 before Smith.

Cheers thought he might have been early 2009.
I remember the charade.

So then just Waterhouse and Solomona then?

I think it fare to say TS it all went down hill...with Captain Hill!

Signed by James Lowes...... About the only good thing he did.