Granted their will be people that have seen more of Ben Harrison than i have so you will be in a better position to comment on him than me, i can`t quite decide if he`s the real deal or not.

In some of the games ive seen him in you think to yourself "Yeh, this lad has got something about him" where as in other games he looks slow to react in defence and doesn`t show up a great deal in attack.

When he`s on his game he seems to put in some monster shots and he offloads really well, too often though he seems to go missing especially when we have the ball. Maybe its my eyesight but the weight seems to be going back on a bit, to me he should be played at prop from now on as thats where i see his future especially with Carvell being out.

I know JWP is a fan of Ben Harrison so his input will be worth reading.

Pretty much agree Rob. Nowhere creative enough to be a loose forward. Can't see anything but prop forward TBH for him in the future, especially when Moz retires (hopefully no time soon)

What!!!!!!! Ben Harrison is prob best utility forward we have got. He can play anywhere in the pack (bar9) and he is only young!!!!!!!!. He has beefed up too much tho, needs to shift bit of muscle, but he is a workhorse.

have to agree with you the guy is awsome..what he does`nt do in the creation dept he makes up for it in his defence..did i not see him go to hooker on sat..

But that's the point fellas. A loose forward needs to be a bit more than a workhorse. Think of all the classy looses there's been over the years. They've always had more than workrate and big hits.

I'm a big Harrison fan, BTW

Like what? The bloke tackles, he hits hard and gains meters, sums up a loose forwards job IMO.

He is seen long term as a prop and quite rightly so. Good to see him trying to develop an offload game. Could end up as the English Solomona.

I know what you mean regarding others but, they can also have a quite hooker or ineffective 5 8th. We dont want have too many creative players at once, at times we have briers, myler, monos, grix, bridge on at once

Next year we will also have Hodgson working as a floating pivot so we don't need a 'creative' loose forward.

big future as a prop in my opinion... young lad still learning his trade.

I think TS has been using him as a LF because

a) to much competition at prop currently
b) no real LF at the club.
c) he does a decent job there

hes been fantastic every game he as played , tries his hardest every game , hes not afraid to get stuck in


one for the future

hope he dosent go down under like burgess

I actually think Harrison is a victim of his own abilities. Wherever he is played he is effective, which has prevented him from making a position his own. My own personal opinion is he will end up being a 60 minute prop, but that is a fair while off yet.

The loose forward to me is a link between the backs and the forwards, its an extra pair of ball playing hands in the pack that can also tackle and take the ball up when required.

Have a look at some of the best loose forwards down the years like Hanley, Fittler, Farrell and Paul Sculthorpe just to name a few. Each one of those could create tries, make breaks, had great ball playing hands, could step a defence and make regular breaks and they would also weigh in with a fair few tries during their careers.

BTW, its not having a go at Ben Harrison as he probably isn`t playing loose forward by choice.

I`d be interested to see how he`d go with a regular run at prop, he hits hard in defence and can offload and can make decent metres.



Not with Carvell out injured, i thought Grix would have gone to 13 with Harrison as one of our props when we heard how long Carvell would be out for.

As said above, depends on the mix of the team. I wouldn't have thought we would need another pivot or link with Briers, Monaghan, Myler and Hodgson on the field. Plus Big Dave off the bench who adds an extra dimension and whose handling and passing is as good any specialist back.

I understand what your saying Rob, not forgetting Mike Gregory from that list, but he's still only young 20 is he. All of them players you have menshioned were in there prime, he has alot to learn and along way to go but definately one for the future.

To be fair he did start at prop on saturday.

we definatley need a loose forward,ben harrison is definatley a prop forward imo.i think che will certainly look into recruiting one,who would people like as lf?i'll go with kevin sinfield,a ideal lf,and can goal kick imo.

Unfortunately it seems to me that the days of the ball playing loose forward are gone. A lot of the time they adopt the roll of a 3rd prop. I like Grix there as he does have craft and a kicking game. The more players you have who can ask the opposition defence more questions the better side you are. Ben H is a reallly good prop/2nd row for me not a LF but we need him somewhere in the 17.

No. Not needed. Next.

The 2 most successful SL teams in recent times have both gone with ball playing loose forwards, saints with Sculthorpe and Flannery and Leeds with Sinfield. I`d hardly say the days of the ball playing loose forward are gone.

Both Saints and Leeds down the years have had pace, speed and ball playing hands in the back row which is where i think we fall short a bit. Between them they have had the likes of Wilkin, Gilmore, Ellis and Ali Lauitiiti at his peak of whome all had pace, ball playing hands and could create and score tries. We are very workmanlike in our backrow, it will get us by in some games but you just feel that we could be a lot stronger in that area.

Sums up a prop forwards job in my view.

Whats a LF's job then?

I don't think Rob_Wire is far off the mark in my view.



Put simply a LF should be seen as an extra pack member in defence and an extra back in attack.

Would you put Sinfield and Flannery in the same bracket as Hanley or Mike Greg. I wouldn't but times change I suppose.

if only there was such a thread to discuss ben harrison and the LF role.....