Bizarre paradox.

But the answer, in short, is no. Is 'awayer' a term?

What a lovely surprise Wormy - great to see you back

Was interesting to see our potential 2019 half back partnership in action. Hope we get Carlos signed up, just love the way he plays. Also
thought Washy did well, and jumped out from acting half now and again.
Hadley going to have a big year from the looks of it.
Nice to grind the win out, bearing in mind who we are still missing.

We looked better with washbrook at hooker and hadley in the back row than we did at cas the other way round

Balance of the team looked better for sure.
Washbrook is fairly strong in the tackle as well, which is probably the reason why Litten isn't getting the nod at the moment.

Thought washys passing from acting half was crisp and he did well

re watch the game - Washy is about 0.33 secs faster getting the ball out than Deano.
Deano never played hooker in his youth.
In fact when Jamie and Deano played in the same youth team Deano was loose man and Jamie was the hooker !!!

bloody hell do watch the game with a stop watch bud ?lol

Washbrook was third man in pretty much all the time, I counted one tackle in the first half where he was first man in. He missed at least two tackles (I've only watched it back until 50 minutes or so).
Sorry but his passing was slow and he isn't strong in the tackle, he's nowhere near as good at hooker than Hadley was, he's too slow.

I think you're being a bit unfair of Washbrook who played ok for mine, but I agree that Hadley is the better hooker of the two. However the back row is weaker when Hadley plays hooker. Its a little catch 22.

I would like to see Litten get a chance but the soft grounds atm aren't really his thing and I fear he would just be too easy a target in defence. Have we got any other options? I dare say Connor could play hooker to a decent standard as a stop gap, but not if Faraimo and Tuimavave are missing. It weakens the back line too much. Not sure how keen he would be on the idea either.

Litten can at least get to the tackle and not be third man in all the time (when the tackle is already effected) and is sprightly off the mark from DH. I get that Radford likes Washbrook, I get that he sees him as a safe option to fill a gap but honestly he's too slow to play dummy half (yes there were a couple of passes that were okay friday) but he makes too many errors and doesn't make breaks or bend the line or make effective tackles and his passing is still too slow and laborious.
I don't think I am being harsh, just reality.

He's a squad player these days. He wouldnt be in my team if everyone was fit. He certainly couldn't be described as dynamic, but he is a safe option and he is versatile. I thought his disribution was actually pretty good the other night. If Radford sticks with him until Houghton is back then I am OK with that.

Perfect post, Litten is a young kid and if Radford thinks he isn't quite ready to play such a pivotal position then you have to back him, how many times have we all seen Litten play 3/4, whilst Radford sees him all the time, it can't be argued that he is doing a great job bringin though the young players at the right time, so we have to trust his judgment on this one, over and who have rarely seen Litten play.

I much prefer Washy at 9 at Hadley at 23 than the other way around.

Probably only two more games until Houghton is back.

The point was though that we looked a more balanced team with Washy hooking and Hadley in the back row, not who's the better hooker between the two.
As for Litten, LR must be leaving him out for a good reason. Going on the development of Fash and Masi, I'll trust his judgement on how he brings Litten through.

I understand leaving Litten out while we are a bit light at prop. The time he is on the pitch he might be defending the middle with Matongo and Fash which wouldn't be ideal. When we have Paea and Green on the bench with him it wouldn't leave us vulnerable.

Fash is a really strong defender tbf but I get your point.

As I alluded to earlier, from what I have seen Litten's best asset is his speed out of DH getting at tired defenders. Its not something we will get too much benefit from in the current conditions. If it was June then it might be worth risking his defence for what he could bring in attack. At the moment I'm not sure the risk v reward is good enough.

You do realize we won don't you and kept them out for about an hour?

Could be wrong but I think they scored whilst Washbrook was off the pitch.

We looked a better balanced team on Friday than the week before and I think Radders got the team selection spot on.

Now when all are fit I wouldn't have Washbrook in the 17 but I think it is wrong to criticize his efforts on Friday.

Oh I'm so sorry for having an opinion about players and how they perform. I happen to think we can do better than Washbrook even with injuries and the players that are sitting out not getting a game (Litten and Adbull I'd have in front of Washy atm), that's my opinion and I gave reasons why.
Yes we won, that's irrelevant in the context of what I said re Washbrook.

LOL easier than saying a third of one second

' a bit faster' - should've used that



anyhow Deano should not be playing hooker as he has far more talent elsewhere

Why not play Jamie at hooker ? his speed from acting half is blistering and he can pass - he surely has the defensive capability as well

Do you mean Jamie Shaul, at hooker, have you gone stark raving mad?
There are so many reasons not to play him there, that includes tackling big blokes who he isn't used to doing and isn't one for getting his hands dirty on the defensive line.
He's fine where he is, yes he's not perfect but FB is his position and he does okay defensively. We put someone in a position to do a workload they're not used to and they will not perform as well as their normal position.
Too often we keep shuffling around when we have injuries, what's the point of a back up hooker if we aren't going to give them a chance even when the player in front is error strewn, slow and can't get to the tackle.

He was stepping into the hookers role when we were coming out of our half v Warrington. That's fine with me putting us on the front foot. That's all I'd want to see from shaul at hooker

I mentioned on another thread that he is being asked to do darts from dummy half since Houghton’s been out, so is getting clobbered by bigger players. Bound to have an effect on him but only my opinion.

There is a world of difference between taking some scoots out of DH and playing hooker.