I agree with this 100%,the last 3/4 years our props have been poor for the majority of the season then pulled it together at the business end of the season.God knows why/how but that's what's happened,I'm hoping for the same this year,

Clubb wont be playing for a while yet so there will be the chance for someone else to step up.

I have mentioned before the props have not had much injury trouble but we been have been being beaten in this area. Only Sutton out for a while and in the meantime only Tauati earning his money. Not sure what has happened to FPN. I thought he looked a bit unfit last season when he arrived but was even so adding that extra bit of aggression to the pack we needed. With an off-season with Wigan I thought we had a Craig Smith MkII on our hands. Flower and Clubb have not impressed either.

FPN is sadly following the same pattern shown at a couple of previous clubs - strong start then descends into laziness. I hope our coaching staff can snap him out of it.

I think the props more then anyone are suffering a bit of a hangover from the Cronulla game and they look a little jaded from having to cover the back row in the absence of Bateman, Lockers and Farrell in the past month or so.

When the time comes to switch on they will do, they always do but we could do with a lift of intensity (especially in defence) in the meantime. We could really do with Tautai staying on though, he's been very good this past 18 months.

I think they need to snap out of their lethargy a bit quicker than that. We need to keep adding league points to the board and we will have Challenge Cup games soon. We could draw SL opposition in that. If Tautai can do it (and also Sutton who looks up for it) then FPN. Clubb and Flower need to up their game.

I'm going to disagree as I think the Props are playing to a game plan set out by Wane. We rely on our outside backs to make yards and our Props to damage the opposition in defence.

Tautai comes on and causes mayhem for 10 minutes then is pretty anonymous. Flower is never going to rack up big yards due to his size but he is an absolute machine in defence.

FPN probably underperforming but I expect his stats willl surprise a few when they are published.

Even defensively they've not been great recently. Sutton was caught out at least once yesterday, Frank was at fault for not pushing over for Saints' last try and Cas had a field day going up the middle last week.

I think the props are struggling partly due to our injuries elsewhere.

We rely a lot on the outside backs to come in and do some of the carrying for the big lads, and with the injuries and unfamiliar personnel in these backs, maybe the props have not been supported as much?

Tautai has certainly been the stand out prop in the side though. Really making yards and driving it up with aggression.

well Ive just looked at the stats and a few things stand out from the pack:

Faz - his stats are by far the most consistent - tackles, yards. errors - good in all
JT - poor all round. poor yards, high errors, lots of missed tackles.

Props
TT shading everyone in all categories.
FPN good yards but lots of errors and missed tackles.
Clubb and Flower - distinctly average all round.
Sutton - solid but not making many yards.
Navarette - good promise. Better all round that TC and BF.

I think those figures pretty much bear up what people have seen on the field.

The bashing of the forwards is a bit unfair. You say JT has been "poor all round" but he's fourth top tackler in the team and second in the off-loads. Yes he may not be making quite as good yards but you need to remember he's been playing alongside very young centres so the defensive effort is not to be overlooked.

In terms of Clubb, I've thought when he's come off the bench he's been superb. But due to injuries he's been playing much longer minutes which in combination with his consistent back troubles makes it quite unfair to be slating him in my opinion. Imagine someone like Walmsley having to play the number of minutes that Clubb has been lately, wouldn't be as effective as he is when he plays in stints.

Firstly I'm not a Clubb basher but what has he done this season that has been superb? He has been poor and at times has done virtually nothing whilst on the pitch. If this has been due to injury fair enough but where on earth have you been able to identify superb play?
I like Clubb for his commitment and endeavour but this season he has been non existent in terms of performance.
Props aside TT and Sutton are not good enough at the moment. Time will tell if this is due to injury, capability or perhaps tactics.
Options on the 6th tackle are perhaps more of a worry at present

Re: Clubb, rumours of a lower back problem all season, which he's played through up until last week. Unconfirmed reports that he could be out for a while. Could this still be repercussions from last years crusher tackle?

Up until the Centurions game his stats in terms of average gain and tackles were impressive. Stats aside, his aggression in defence off the bench is usually very effective and he and others really stood up in the WCC against some very strong opposition, which I would say was superb.

From the Centirions game onwards the injury crisis kicked in and our middles have been paying much bigger minutes. Plus they have not had the luxury of Budgie and Gildart (our biggest metre makers) running from dummy half, which is bound to affect performances.

I'm not saying there hasn't been poor performances but I think people should consider the other factors before laying into our players.

We should be pulling out the stops to re-sign Tautai, he is fantastic, we should then be looking at replacing FPN, Flower and Clubb if things don't get better, bring in a decent NRL player, a SL player and try to find a big rawbone Union player, DAVE TAYLOR would be nice

I believe his injury is to his kidney which hopefully isn't too serious however, I got told yesterday that he is out for 2 months.
I like Clubb and wish him a speedy and safe recovery.
He certainly hasn't been the same since the incident has he?

Anyone else think Wane has had a word with FPN?

After an average first 20 minutes on good Friday, wane only put him back on when the game was seemingly won, after the 3 tries.

Dropped to the bench Monday but performed loads better, much improved.

Sutton was great as was Naverette.

I've yet to see the Wrecking Ball live up to his nickname, but it's early days so far.

Yes, agreed. Noticeable that SW was in no hurry to give him a second spell on Friday, I remarked on it at the time.
Better on Monday but still not at Tautai level . Naverette looked very good and certainly deserves more game time.

I hope this talk of us losing TT isn't true.

Saw a headline last night (sorry, can't find link) that Tautai himself was the reason he started the game on Monday, put his hand up to SW and he agreed.
Wanted to test himself and also give FPN the chance to come on midway through the match.

I thought they all put a shift in on Sunday, vast improvement on recent weeks, keep it up please !

One of our props actually made a break! Couldn't believe what I was seeing when Flower burst through.

I still don't think they're performing at the required level.

To a degree, the French were lucky yesterday. Two of their early tries were jammy, and all through the match they benefitted from some questionable refereeing decisions (including a couple of fortuitous back-to-backs), but I still thought our defence looked flabby in the middle. The other problem is that we're now starting to clock up injuries in the forwards too. Heard nothing about TT, but he looked to be carrying an arm in the last few minutes. If he's now benched, alongside Joel and Bateman, that would be three of the best from a generally under-performing pack ruled out.

In contrast, I thought Lockers had his best game for quite a while yesterday - we really noticed it when he came back on in the second half. But it really is time for the other big-hitters in the pack to up their game.

Looking at the stats Flower and Nuuausala both ran for well in excess of 100m each and their average gain was over 10m each. They must be season high numbers for them.

Defensively we've looked slack across the park in most games (especially round the middle) but you only hope that as usual, we'll lift that when needed. This week against Cas is as good a time to start as any!

They were good yesterday, against a big pack. I thought FPN got some crucial, quick PtB's. Let's hope both he and Flower have come into some good form.