I don't agree. I think Fages is a tough little halfback who takes more than his fair share of knocks, very rarely misses many games and defends well in the line.

Agreed his ability to defend basically saw him make the 7 shirt his and meant Richardson had to leave to join Cas.

Don’t think he gets the credit he deserves because he isn’t a superstar.

Agreed. I think he’s a solid half back, he’d go well at Wigan if Saints wanted to discard him.

Didn't Lomax have the most try assists in SL last year? Coote must have been up there too. Fages and Lomax both top10 so far this year.

We have been without Coote and Percival which impacts our attack. Woolf is clearly a conservative coach but couple of good flicked passes from centres for tries at the weekend.

Fages will eventually move to hooker and Lewis Dodd will be a more dangerous ball player in his place.

Strange one - one of the toughest halves I've seen.

Always seems to stay down after a hit when other players would get up again.

Obviously he's tough as all players are, but seems to enjoy getting treatment.

Lomax falls in that bracket. Including this weekend and the last regular season game against Saints

Yes, I'd say Lomax more than Fages.

Back to the thread topic;

If we had a forward like Oledski he’d change our pack dynamic. Our props aren’t bad but equally they aren’t great. Put a Walmsley/Lees/Paasi/Watts in our team and we have a scintillating squad.

A prop (or two) should be the highest on our agenda

It would massively. I look at Bullock and I thought he was better tonight but Oledzki has found that switch inside himself to push and push through games but Bullock never has. He’s a good prop but has the tools to be a top prop. Young Havard has huge potential and he’s the best suited to starting at the moment and he’d be capable of playing long minutes. He’s only going to get better and better and then you have the aggressors in Singleton and Partington. If you swap Clubb tonight with Oledzki, it’s a 30-40 point Wigan win.

Harvard is out Oledski.

We need 1 experienced quality prop.

We find him we win SL.

I actually think out props went ok tonight to be honest.

Clearly a minority.

I look at our props and aside from Clubb they’re all bringing stuff to the table in every game (Clubb was good in his second spell but you just know his first spell will be more the norm) but we just miss a real battering ram in the middle. Somebody who is all elbows and knees and can get us off the line. If you put that in to the side then you’re covering all bases in that area and you suddenly have a really impressive 5 prop rotation.

I hope they’re searching high and low both here and in the NRL and through to the reserve comps over there and the Championship and below here.

I agree, Havard IMO is the best young prop in Superleague, his metres post contact are very impressive, but he'll be in Aus in two or three years, they've been after him since he was seventeen.

Oh for a Craig Smith type prop?

I know Mik has been courted by the NRL since he was 17, just signed a long term contract at Leeds.

One thing they seem to do well is retain their young talent.

He is but still a year or 2 off fully developing (which is a hugely encouraging thing considering how well he’s doing now).

We need to keep hold of Havard and alongside signing a prop as described his retention should be on the agenda too. It always baffles me as to why we let our quality players to go to the NRL whereas other clubs tie them down to long term contracts but that’s another topic all together

Lees ?? You are joking surely ?

We will never see the best of havard, some NRL side will!!

Lees in the same sentence as Walmsley or now Oledzki is an insult to those lads. I’m not sure where Lees gets his rep from on his career to date. Easy to handle with the ball and a real plastic hard man.

Wouldn’t swap any of our young props for him.

Oledski is quality, absolute unit and has the skills and attitude too.

Last night he made 44 tackles, 188m and 22 carries

Singleton made 20 tackles, 60m and 11 carries
Bullock 15 tackles, 102m and 11 carries
Havard 35 tackles, 86m and 13 carries
Clubb 15 tackles, 58m and 6 carries

Yet some people think our props are just there to defend and for their 'mobility'

Absolute rubbish, Oledski is miles ahead of Havard.

Depends what Rogues means by young. Oledzki is 22 whereas Havard has just turned 20. Oledzki has been around Leeds first team for 4 years and is going in to his fifth year whereas Havard is going in to his second and has just had his first pre season in first team rugby.

If you bung Havard in with guys like Wilson, Holroyd and Doro who are his age and have as much experience as him, then he’s he’s the best young prop in that bracket IMO. A guy like Oledzki is reasonably experienced in comparison and probably gets lumped in with guys like Partington, Lees, English etc and he’s obviously the best in that sort of age/experience bracket.

Give it five years and we’ll have an answer to who is the better prop from Oledzki and Havard. They’ll both be regular internationals IMO.

Much better from Bullock last night with the ball. Clubbs tackling stats are scandalous considering all the defending we did in that first spell of his.

It’s probably too much, too young but I’d be starting Havard and looking to get 60-70 minutes out of him. He’s fit as a fiddle and was doing big minutes last year, so I see no reason why he can’t now. He’s already our best prop IMO and it already looks unlikely that he’ll be here for anymore than a couple of years, so let’s use him whilst we have him.

Oledzki has only really started to perform consistently in the last 12 months, and Havard definitely seems more consistent than Mik was at 20, but there's not much between them in terms of potential.

Anyway, it's not an Oledzki that you're missing, it's a Prior, Hill, or Taylor.

When Singleton is probably your 'leader' in the front row, you know you have an issue.

Bullock seems decent though, better than Singleton IMO. Nice 'assist' for the Hardaker try last night

Agreed mate, good point.

If we're not going to bulk him up we should at least make him into a big minute prop. Currently we're doing neither with him.

Those stats are fine and I wouldn't dispute them one bit. However, you also have to look at how many minutes each prop played.
The SKY folk were saying Oledski played 80 mins. None of our props came near that. Singleton was hardly seen 2nd half, Clubb played his usual 10 mins first half. Bullock was off the field for ages but when out there had a much better game.

I do think when Lam gets his players back next week with Farrell and Isa in the pack then he'll be able to have backs who will take the ball up as this has been our tactic for over 10 years. Years ago when we had Charnley, Gelling and Co they used to make over 100 mtrs and sometime 200. Very often in a set coming out of our 20 a prop would only take up one carry, the rest being done by backs and a scoot by the 9.

When we have French, Manfredi then Marshall back there will be pace that no other club can match. Later when Field is available other teams won't by bothering how to beat our pack, they'l be more concerned as to how to stop our pace men.