Where would you play him Bobby? I wouldn't dislodge Currie to play him at loose, Currie is brilliant there. Yates just needs to be in the thick of the tackling, doing the defensive stuff and enabling other guys to save their energy for attack.

Also, forgot to mention but I thought Musgrove was good when he was on last night, made some telling plays.

Would just mention Marty Ashton. He gets through a lot of work and always seems to make metres post tackle. A complete winger. Thewlis has great footwork, elusive runner and every so often deliver vers an absolute bell ringer in defence.
Yesterday wasn’t a complete performance by any means but shows we are not a soft touch, even Currie seems to have developed a liking for the tough stuff.

That’s a good question Jb, Yates works well as he'll tackle anything that comes his way. But for meters made he lacks abit of bite. Putting more pressure on Vaughan to do the hard yards. Trying to shoehorn Yates into the team is a difficult because you’ve Currie who as you e said has to be our 13 every game. Play Yates on the edges you’ll lose his defensive capabilities, plus for rest of the season Nicholson and Bateman seem to be Burgess starting second row. So do you start with Harrison and Vaghaun and rotate with Musgrove and Yates. Yes, I know Yates will struggle with meters made, but if Wire are on the front foot by the platform set by Harrison and Vaughan, it shouldn’t be to much of a concern. And on the flip side if Wire are under the cosh Yates will shore that up playing in the middles. I agree with you about Musgrove he was good last night, always looking to turn in the tackle for an offload. If Yates becomes a bench player, then Crowther looses his spot. Who for me has just lost something about him, maybe that niggly injury is holding him back.

Yeah agreed, the only other position he can play is 13 and I don’t think he offers enough with the ball vs what Currie brings. Yates has been brilliant at prop, can easily play 60 minutes and has been up there with Vaughan as our best prop for me - I wouldn’t move him.

Tai's defensive positioning has come on a lot and it's good to see. His attacking intelligence and ability and willingness to pass is still massively where it should be for someone playing centre. This is probably why he's got 1 assist to his name all season. Moves to the right always die when they get to him as he doesn't look to pass.

That's fair comment. For me there is a Divine Trinity of rugby league centres:
1. Destructive runner
2. Rock solid in defence
3. Creates space for their winger and can time the pass.

When we take off the nostalgia glasses, there are and have always been very few players who tick all three boxes.

We have Tai who meets criteria 1 and 2. We have Wrench who meets 1 and 3. Optimistically, we have an attacking coach who ticked all three boxes (as well as a few at Ladbrokes) who should be able to help both players develop.

Quite surprised at the (over) analysis of yates.

He's been fine since coming in.

He's played 13/middle at Huddersfield, Salford and London with no problems.

Based on our set up, at 1/6/7 and 9 it's not essential to have another creative type at 13 just someone who can pass slightly above average

7? Surely you're not saying we don't need Currie because we've got Drinkwater?

Not quite I'm saying it's ok to have yates at 13, it's not the end of the world.

And I know its trendy to hate on drinkwater, I'm not nailing any ultra defensive colours to a mast, but burgess williams and dufty have been complimentary about what drinkwater has been doing in order to let them play.

Cas have come on a lot under Craig Lingard & that was a tough match last night. We did what we had to & i thought our defence coped well when Cas had their big forwards on the pitch alongside the ever dangerous McShane.

Yep I'm surprised too. Stinks a bit of someone watching 20 minutes where he hasn't played so well & deciding he's not a good player. Yates is a very decent player.
I also see the usual bit of crap thrown at Drinkwater & Bateman. Does it make some feel better to criticise players?

Sky & video refs seem to have a system of asking for the most obscure angles to be shown then when the decision has been made a later shot of the action shows a much clearer & simpler angle.

Just wish we could do away with the video ref full stop. Taking far to long with a decision and now players staying down to get penalties to which both coaches made comment on in post match interview. Yates yellow card was wrong for me, actually saw a worse hit than that later and it was just a penalty. If you go back all though you can’t now but was a case for penalty try when Wray was scoring. I really dislike the video ref system.

I have no problem with having a video ref but think if it goes up it should just be “try, yes or no” then no undue influence from the on field ref.

For example no video ref would have meant CTW’s try chalked off.

Where is the hate on Drinkwater? He works hard but is limited as an attacking/creative threat, even if he will very occasionally do something very good and then you wonder why it is so rare.

Not sure what the 'trendy' stuff is about.

Drinkwater does hold the game well.
So often with a money ball or kick that goes without recognition.

We loose, Drinky now, and we are in trouble.

No hate on Yates either, just my opinion he ain’t a prop who makes meters, Duckie was on Vaughans case as not making meters. In my view Vaughan is one of best prop forwards in super league. Along side Thompson at Wigan. As for Drinkwater he just steadys the flow , so Williams can play what he sees in front of him.. I’ve no problem with that style of play with Drinkwater.

We already know that's not yates game, he's defensive (hard tackling) middle

Rod Tai has been the unsung hero of this season. He's defensively very sound, makes hard yards and wants to promote the ball when opportunity allows. He's been a great addition to the squad. Yates reminds me of Danny Nuttley, who was another grafter and grinder. He does the grunt well, usually, but everyone has an error or two in them. Drinkwater is another in that mould, but I just want to see more from a half back, and his kicking game isn't as good as Walker's. It really is a great advantage to have someone who has the ability to pinpoint a kick on the final play of a set of six, at Old Trafford. I don't see Drinkwater as that player. That's opinion, not hate, before I get labelled by anyone on here.

Tai has improved since the start of the season and is still improving.
He is as hard as nails and brings the ball out well.
Makes the odd defensive 'error' read.
Doesn't pass to the wing often enough or draw a defender and put his wing away, and too often takes the wrong attacking option.
Much to work on, but progress good.
He can learn a lot from Gleeson.

Ewe wouldn't be in trouble at all if we lost Drinkwater. His kicking game is bang average. All his kicks go straight to a fullback or winger. He almost never makes a break. He sometimes gives a good pass but don't ever remember him delivering any balls to anyone but the man next to him. His defence is terrible. I'll look at the stats next week but I'd bet he's got the highest ratio of missed tackles per attempt made. It's every single game I see him get shrugged off. I think we could stick ratchford or currie at 7 and we'd be in almost the same position

Agree with this. He reminds me of Tyrone Roberts, in that I can count on one hand the things he's done that deserve plaudits. Kicking a bomb on the last tackle to the same place, ad nauseum, isn't memorable. It speaks volumes that he was overshadowed and pushed out by a youngster like Leon Hayes.

DING DING DING DING

Tyrone Roberts got Wire to a Grand final and Challenge cup final.