Regardless of the postive/negative stats in each players favour, I'm much more content with Mark Riddell as our starting hooker.

He controls the tempo of the game and his distribution is very good. His awareness around the ruck is of a high standard and selects the right options when it comes to forwards running off both sides of the play the ball.

Whether he's met expectations or not, we now have a starting hooker which I'm happy with. His running game and fitness just need to be tweaked.

Thought he played at SH?

At least he scored some tries...

How on earth anyone can be happy with a player who fails to meet expectations is beyond me. Were you happy with DV? Are you happy with Fielden? If not why are you happy with Riddell? Riddell is here for three seasons and 11 games of one have gone and he won't be getting any quicker.

Dave

Because Riddell isn't performing badly.

The only thing missing from his performances are his running game and fitness.

Mark Riddell's defence, ball distribution, decision making and all round presence is very good and of a much, much higher standard of Micky Higham. Unfortunately, a decent running game does not warrent the no.9 jersey and that's all that Higham offers ahead of Riddell.

Bout time we moved towards more creative 9 play

riddells defence is better than highams go away you fool ,riddells tackelin is 0 tell me how many one on one tackels he makes 0 .hes the worst 9 in the comp by a mile .running from dummy half dont make you a good 9 ,higham can do all of them plus the best kick chase you have ever seen .gb player pal riddell never been caped .your post is a laughing joke higham is better than all 3 of your so called 9s put together

Dont

lmao.

How come its always the muppets who cant spell/type/string a sentence together properly who come on here worshiping Higham, im sure its always the same person

Do you actually speak like this, or have you just popped in on a bad day?

In Tommy and Sam, we have two very good players who never fail to make a contribution. They should both be on for 80 minutes.

In Mark Riddell and Tim Smith, we have two players who have yet to prove they are worth their places. Start one and put the other on the bench if you must.

Then keep the positional changes to a minimum. Even when we have been going well in games this season, there have been unforced substitutions which have done more harm to us than to the opposition, through the confusion caused by shifting players around. Usually, this has been done to accommodate Tim Smith in one of the half-back spots. I'm not sure his efforts so far merit that kind of consideration.

I am reluctant to condemn Smith out of hand, as he seems to have some talent -- mainly smart passing. But the fact is that's not enough for a Super League half-back. In 16 games for Wigan, he has scored a total of four points. I doubt if any half-back in the league has so poor a strike rate, whatever their perceived 'role'.

Is this serious or not?

Can we take that as an attempt at satire?

well your not are you with that load of wind .take up something else as you realy are not watchin the same game as me .maybe a job with eddie and stevo there very much like you

Every post of yours has been about Micky Higham though.

You clearly have some kind of obsession/link with him.

He wasn't good enough to start at 9 for Wigan and is probably why he's coming off the bench for Clarke at the moment.

Get over it.

Higham wasn't good enough in such a key position. However, neither is Piggy or McClorum.

Lets be stricter with out team in order to create a winning team.

Don't forget we brought in Piggy from the other side of the world. So far he's had a poor season, terrible disappointment.

hope so ,it worked well .wont matter who you start as they both none starters and never will be ,he ends my hooker lesson as realy carnt be botherd listening this rubbish .duck eggs is being kind to them both

good shout your bang on .

Based on what exactly?

Pryce was tried at 6 in the reserves, he could be the next tried in that position in the first team over Phelps.

Riddell still managed to show several players a clean pair of heels yesterday. I don't think he is short of pace for his position personally.

I very much doubt Noble will risk Pryce at 6. HE did play there in the world club challenge for bratfud, but I can't see Noble risking it. Simply because of how poorly he played at cats.

Imagine how bad having what we saw agianst Cats would be... in a more vital position! Horrible! *shudders*

Because it is where the Aussies most rated him and where he has said himself he prefers to play but is happy nevertheless to play anywhere in the side as long as he is in the squad. Just look at the Saints game - his accuracy with his kicking in general field was far more accurate than Leuluai or Tomkins. He got good field position when he found touch on more than one occasion something which Leuluai/Tomkins had failed to do. It is okay using that tactic but you have to gain siginificant field position to merit it. Also his pass for Ainscough's try and his link up in attack was fantastic and put Pat Richards to shame. He offloaded numerous times in the tackle and allowed us to gain momentum forward or even a second phase in attack. From all those things I get the impression that the lad would be a far greater asset for us at stand off than he has anywhere else. Celtic Crusaders or a friendly would have been a good opportunity to try this out but we did not. It would be a risk granted and I doubt Noble will risk it but IMO if the team don't "turn the corner" soon it might be a risk worth taking.

i no somethin hes not short of a gut and whats that touchin he keeps doin when he comes in at 3rd man ,did he show the clean heels when he was joging to the dug out for a rest after his one and only gay run he has made his trade mark ,what the hell is that run all about .get him on come dancin .he is rubbish

That doesn't make one bit of sense?

Seriously mate talk 2 Frank 0800 77 66 00