Quote ="Father Ted"In reply to abovepie's comments. I thought Millington and Lynch were very good when they came on for the last 20 mins or so. Wasn't too impressed how they went in the first 25.
I do think they benefit from Milner coming off the bench. He's a hooker doing to second stint and we don't have that. Logan did ok but he's gone now. Powell doesn't do it at 9 for us in the interchange with Micky, we lose a lot of intensity there.
Cuthbertson and Peacock were found out in the last 50 mins against us at Newcastle. There again they don't have a hooker doing the 2nd stint after Aiton goes off.
Hill/Sims again at times are very good, they do have two hookers in the 80 mins.
Amor and Walmsley are average and excellent respectively. They have a hooker on for the full 80 - Roby.
Some of those props, Walmsley I ve noticed more, have 3 spells. That time is limited when subs go to 6 from four rather than 10 from four as now.
We have a solid but fast front row who can and do get 3-4 men in a tackle which exhausts the opposition props very quickly. Where we lose it is bringing on a half back to replace a hooker/forward in Micky. We the lose intensity altogether. He has to get up to the pace of the game and is a half back and not a forward.
We need to bring a backrow forward from 2nd row to 9 when Micky goes off. Bateman would do the job brilliantly IMO.
Bateman starts the game, then when Micky departs he goes to 9 until MM returns. His place is taken by a back rower from the bench. When Micky comes back on Bateman leaves the game to the bench.
Bateman is a rugged tacker, got good hands, quite a bit of pace and a very quick Rugby brain that can spot the gaps. If he starts the game he does not have to take 5-10 mins to pick up the pace of the game.
With Bateman (or Faz) going to 9 we would not lose any of the intensity that we have been doing for years and which has been our downfall this past few of seasons. It would also give us 4 forwards on the bench and do us nicely for the reduction in interchage.'"
What about 80mins from MM?
Either that or bring in a relatively cheap and young back up option from the NRL. Someone with a bit of pace going against tired legs
