Can we please ship this clown off to the Skolars, where he belongs?

He wants to play second-row. Will Sharp says the centres is his favourite position; one game against Cas is surely not enough to say no forever and Melling can play on the wing, he sure hasn't got the frame to play in the back row.



This is how the selected 17 should have lined up



1. Bish

2. Joc

3. Purdo

4. Sharpy

5. Mello

6. Galey

7. Danny Boy

8. Young Dave

9. Chaddy

10 LMS

11 Cougar

12 Clubby

13 Golds



14 Wilkesy

15 Big Dave

16 Norman

17 Bolge



I have gone with their nicknames to try and re-establish a little connection to them, as at the minute I am feeling like they should all be sent to a Junior Quins camp to try and re-learn the fundamentals of the game; catching, passing, positioning and teamwork.



Also it's the second home game in a row that we have not used the full compliment of subs, not the 12 interchanges, but actually left a body on the bench not bruised and battered, surely a criminal offence if the team is not winning.

This second row thing is an excuse for him being a woeful centre. Moving him to second row will do nothing, in fact it'll be even worse as second rows get threw more defensive work, something that Clubb is not adept at. Just for a loan spell, to make him get a grip.

Defending at second-row is very different to defending in the centres; in the centres he is stood up by movement and the ball being shifted that he is exposed to when defending one further out. His lack of from a stand-still pace is exposed time and time again. He is a second-row and he can play in the centres or on the wing, but he is a second-row forward.

He has been poor this season.

Leading the opta stats for missed tackles by a huge distance.



I've never rated him to be honest.

It appears to be trendy to slag Clubb regardless of any thought in to what has happened to him, he showed promise as a centre a few years ago, but we mucked him about, then he showed even more promise as a strong running second-row, but BM doesn't like that sort of player and we're short of a centre, so now he's back to being a centre, only he still looks more suited to being a promising strong-running second-row in a side that doesn't play that way.



Yesterday we had a hooker at scrum half, a second-rate scrum half at stand off, a decent but seen better days stand off at hooker, a once promising second row at centre, a full back/utility back at second row, and our loose forward at centre! FFS if you're going to play Melling as a second-row why not just play Clubb there, and play Melling either as a centre or put him on the wing with Sharpe at centre. Selection policy is completely insane.

The only position Clubb should possibly play is 2nd row but BMcD overstocked with those so he was forced out of position.

Overstocked with mediocre second-row forwards, so much so that he played Melling there yesterday







The BMcD decided that Clubb wasn't going to develop as a centre, so he tried him as a second-row and he showed real potential in that position (albeit as a strong running forward, which is problematic given BMcD's plodding and grafting game plans), but then we decided we needed him as a centre again, so now he's back there. BMcD is destroying Clubb with his mucking about, we need to leave him be. Besides making Clubb the boo boy is plain stupid, we have no kicking game, we have only one (ageing) SL standard player in the halves and we're currently playing him at hooker (negating the minimal short kicking game we did have). Our problems are based on fundamental weaknesses in the squad.



When it comes down to it Clubb is one of the players I'd keep because in a stronger squad we could play him to his potential rather than wasting it with half baked tactical meddling.

Why does he hitch kick when he gets the ball instead of getting up a head of steam and smashing the defender in front of him?



Just a frustrating thought

That's how he played when we used him as a second-row, it's clear to me that he's been told to change certain aspects of his game now he's a regular centre.

KF- So whats the change then?

Can someone tell me what our coach is trying to achieve here. Randall is a quality hooker and Orr is not. Both are playing out of position for what reason? I am baffled

This is the sort of thing that really worries me. I’m no coach but I would think the most logical and best chance of turning things round given the current crisis is to pick as many of our best players as possible in their best/strongest/most familiar positions/roles, then decide the best options to fill the remaining places. I mean, we still have the nucleus of the side that won ten out of the first fifteen last season. Perhaps there was an element of luck about that good spell, but there aren’t that many first choice players missing any more and we ought to be capable of at least running most teams close, and beating a few, if we get our act together.



Playing musical chairs with the team sheet in the hope of hitting upon something that works seems a bit clueless to me and looks worryingly like muddled thinking. Unless Mac has given the matter deep thought, is convinced several of our most experienced players are better suited to roles they never previously occupied on more than an occasional basis if at all, and intends to persist with these adjustments for long enough to make them work if they are ever going to work? But if this were the case the best time to do it would have been over the close season, not now the wheels have fallen off.

To me it looks like he's far more rigid in his positional play, which is almost certainly something that he's being coached to do now he's the regular centre. Playing second-row gives him far more space and ball to make the powerful runs we saw from him at times last season. Ultimately there is only so much our backs can achieve playing behind a beaten pack with substandard halves.