He isn’t that good to be honest, quite an underwhelming signing to be honest... would rather stick with players like Lane & Fash - hope to god he isn’t Josh Jones replacement if rumours are to be believed.

I dont see a need for a prop with Bowden, Taylor, Sao, Satae, Fash, Matongo and Brown. I don't see many clubs with a better set of props than that.

Could even argue it's one too many, the game is a lot quicker (way behind the NRL still mind)

Disagree. Bowden and Taylor not great on injuries the last 2 years. We had Matongo, Fash, Satae, Sao and Brown in the Wigan cup game and got steamrollered.

We got our prop rotation totally wrong in that game, we started Masi and Fash who are both terrible at getting any momentum with the ball and by the time Satae and Sao both came on the game was already over.

Exactly should have started with Sao or Satae or both, I hope Last has learnt from that lesson.

It was a masterplan.
Been there and done the CC, b2b.
Just lulling them into a false sense of security for the bigger fish/prize further down the season line.

Of course. But equally if they had our bench would not have been good enough so we'd have lost the middle of the game.

And the start still.

Maybe,who knows we could have been 12-0, anyway that's one game, I'd guess the only game where you have our 5th and 8th prop are starting.

If we had paired Sao and Masi / Satae and Fash it would have given us a more balanced look and wouldn't as Dave K says leave us relying on our 5th and 7/8th choice props together at the same time.

Mantongo doesn't have any aggression and you can't coach that into him. Bowden has had a few good games but that isn't enough to excuse 3 years of mediocre performances. Taylor is getting injured a lot.

Does Taylor get injured alot, had one bad injury this year, what about the other years?

We have to prioritize our signings, we wont be spending much and I'd like to see us sign a 6, then another forward, probably a backrower should Jones leave, as that would leave us very short of backrowers.

..... it's a bit like "3 years of mediocre performances", he missed well over a year with a serious knee injury, but let's ignore that.

Would he get in at a top4 club? We carry too many passengers and that prevents us becoming a top4 club.

He's only played 9 times this season, only the clubs physios will know if that is bad luck or a sign he is declining, he is now 30 which isn't ancient but past peak age. I wasn't suggesting his place in the team should be in doubt, just that we need cover for him.

We certainly need to get Tag fit again, we’ve missed his qualities a lot.

He had to isolate for around 40 days in total due to track & trace etc, hardly his fault!

He's already playing for one.

So just this season where he had an operation and had to miss games because of Lane having covid. So not really injury prone.

If Scott Taylor is injury prone then so are 95% of SL players

2016 - played 34/35
2017 - 28/35
2018 - 29/32
2019 - 27/32

i dont think there is any doubt that Jones will leave

Didn't know about the Covid, the club have understandably been vague with their 'injury' updates.

We have been playing like the Top4 club for the last few weeks but thats the first time in 3 seasons we have. I'd wait a bit longer before declaring we are a top4 side. Definitely heading in the right direction though.

Far from it, plenty of "injury updates" have been reported.