I was one of them

My thoughts too. Good to have a dependable player to be able to bring in and know he will do a very good job for the team. However he is not first choice in any of the positions he can play.

Indeed , Hall should be that player.

Its pretty obvious that Byrne, G Horne, Hall, Whiting etc wont be first choice in the 17 when all our players are fit and if we could have brought a centre in like we were trying to.

For now Agar made his selections, we won the game and the players under pressure really performed. It would be a terrible more by Agar to change a winning team to put in Hall or Motu if he is back.

Depends if he sticks to his words about playing horses for courses. The weakest part of the Celtic team is their defence and we need to exploit that by having as many attacking players playing as we can.

That said it would be harsh on Byrne.

If Motu is fit i'd put him on the bench.

So would I but not because I think Byrne had a great game on Friday (he was solid, nothing more) but because I dont think Motu could handle a full 80 so coming off the bench would be less pressure for him. If Motu was "fully fit" he would be straight back at FB for me.

No need for Motu and Byrne in the same squad, its one or the other for me. We can't be wasting bench spots on the assumption it's unfair on players. We need the best 17 so tough choices have to be made.

Motu would purely be in to get 20 mins of match fitness. I'd have him on the bench and may even use him to spell Berro for 20.

Celtics defending around the ruck has been poor.

Danny Houghton would have a field day if he was to spell Berro.

Think thats what we'll go with anyway. Motu may be better getting the fitness built up more before we throw him into a game. At least with Byrne playing well we dont need to rush him back this time.

This is an area we must exploit, Like you say ,thieve been awful in this department especially against Salford. Berrigan will be better for his run to.
One thing i like about Celtic though ,is the expansive style of rugby there trying to play.

They do play exciting expansive rugby but usually when they are 20 points down!



I am sure they will be very keen to put on a show for their home crowd on Saturday.

Yeah they do play a good style of rugby and their main strike play is the inside ball to Duggan behind the PTB which is a area we have struggled with due to lazy defenders.

TODD IS A COD!

If Byrne plays like this week in, week out then Tony will and should be on the bench. Apart from that one mistake he caught everything and stopped everything. Watching him set himself for a one on one tackle you could see he was confident. I like Tony but he makes me nervous.

Byrne or Motu should never be on the bench unless they are the only fit players. One plays and one doesn't, we have other priorities for the bench.

I can't speak for those already posted on this thread but so many fans have labeled Todd as average and a waste of a quota place. I'm so pleased to see him getting the support he deserves. A quality player IMO and ex NZ test caps to his name.
He would be my first choice fullback as I think it's his best and favoured position. At least on a par with Motu who still doesn't fit with my idea of a fullback. I'm in the 'defensive ball catching' camp rather than the 'second stand off' camp. Incidently I believe stand off would better suit Motu but I'm not looking to spark a Byrne v Tony row. I had enough of the Briscoe one. Just my observations.

agree with you mate.

Think Tony could be a bench player because he could be used instead of houghton in an impact hooker role as well as being cover for the backs.

I agree though that we shouldn't use a sub place primarily for an outside back

Except that on the odd occasion that he's played there he's been largely pants.

I don't class Tony as a 'pivot' FB anyway. For me he's an attacking fullback whose main strength is his kick returns. He makes good yardage and always gets a quick PTB, which is tremendously important for us as we otherwise struggle to clear our line and make progress up the field. That's really my only reason for preferring Tony to a more defensive FB like Byrne.

Totally agree with everything there. (including prefering Tony at FB)

Byrne is Australian. I'm pretty sure he has no NZ test caps unless he bought them from Ebay

tbh tony is a forwards dream the amount of carrys he makes for the team ,both him and bryne are great squad players able to play a number of roles in the team ,i like whiting at centre as well such a smart player reads the game so well, and as an eye for the unexspected which results in somthing positive for the team so many times,carnt help thinking todd is a bit of a waste of a quota spot though ,for me we had a specialist FB now we have too very good utility players ,but lets not get into that one

haha