Nice combination of pedantry and childishness!

The Aussie press was linking Soward to Wigan. Whilst this is incredibly unlikely, there is no doubt whatsoever that Wigan will sign a talented halfback for next season.

McRae says in the paper that whilst initially a short term deal, it could turn into something longer. You really have to put in effort and manipulate reasons to see this as anything other than a positive signing.

They are two completely different positions. A winger generally drops back when a kick is expected, a full back needs to be on the look out all the time as well as marshalling the defence. Lyne struggles with his own positional play nevermind trying to get others in the right position. You also have the benefit of not seeing Lyne play at FB this season, those who have know he is not up to it.
Some Wingers make good fullbacks others just cannot cut the mustard.

Not really at worst sarcastic.

Of course theres doubt who they'll sign, if they do get the talented halfback i'm glad we can sign their cast off, onwards and upwards.

I can find something positive with this signing, at least hes not from Leeds.

Have I?

Again that was a list of options, Horne to fb and Ellis in the halves would be my prefrence.

Tomkins is best at fullback so they won't change him. They are already trying to sign a halfback. Russell will start as a winger and opposite wing to Charnley I reckon. He may eventually move to fullback. He could do that in 4 years time as he will still only be 22/23 and Tomkins may move on?

Well going on your location I don't suppose you have been down to the games when Wade was injured??

I don't mind Horne at FB, however it is the coach who decides and if we are bringing in a player who is a FB then it seems that he wants Horne & Seymour to continue forging a partnership.

Anyone can sign up and what all the games on the tinternet.

Could be, but Tomkins has proved he is a world class FB, so why move him? Unless Russell turns out to be just as good, then I wouldn't consider it. And if he is then we have a world class FB on loan.

Like I say, if Agar had the balls to play Lyne and J. Briscoe in previous seasons then we wouldn't be in the position to loan other more developed players from rival clubs and would have no qualms about playing them.

It will take time to have the depth we need to progress.

Yes but you don't get the whole picture on the internet. At the game you can view what a player is doing off the ball etc.

Fuck knows, same reason Lockyer moved?

clearly it seems some forgot they call it the WORLD wide web for a reason sheldon


unloess of course the Oz governement edit the live stuff too ??

Anyway hope he goes well, has a great month, stays till the end of the season, signs a long deal with us and plays for England.

I won't be as childish to hunt through quotes from others slagging loan signings off.

I'm not keen on loan signings, but at times they are needed.

Russel is a highly promising individual who could well turn out to be as good as Tomkins, but he needs to work on certain aspects of his game. In particular is positional play and ability under the highball.

As for displacing Tomkins from FB. Many Wigan fans believe, including myself that Sam's career path will follow that of Darren Lockyer's. Starting out at FB but slowly moving into the halves as he ages. That's of course if Sam stays at Wigan long enough. The RFU or NRL may well come calling. There's just too many variables at present to say what will happen. What I do believe though, is if Russel becomes good enough Wigan will make room for him.

Sam played a fair bit of first receiver in the game against yourselves a couple of weeks back. As a Wigan fan I can't tell you how extact I would be to see Sam at 6 and Russel at 1, should Matty prove to be good enough.

Given that the fullback we did have has just f**ked off home, we have no reserves coming close to being up to the job, and as you so frequently remind us nobody any good from the NRL will ever want to sign for a SL club ever again, as well as any other player being someone else's cast off, who exactly would you like to see us sign if McRae/Gentle don't want to put Horne there?

And what exactly have the Romans ever done for us?

Exactly. They're for when all other options have been exhausted/are found wanting. Unfortunately we're close to that with the fullback position.

And TBF we always were a little behind the 8 ball at FB since the days of Briscoe & Motu and this was shown with the Tansey situation were the club put up with him and his indiscretions as long as possible before getting rid and getting Phelps in as replacement which was only to be short term after the old regime signed McKinnon.

So I just dont see the problem in getting a loan player in for a specialist position were we have no real cover whatsoever unless we then start to move players around.

Horne unlikely to be fit, Russell to start according to smailes on twitter

Russell is a real mixed bag and personally I dont think he is ready for SL level yet, it will certainly be interesting to see how he gets on at Hull. In attack he can be good and is a great support player but he is awful positionally, is poor in dealing with kicks and his defence isnt the best. Unless he improves these aspects it will be an awful long time before he displaces Tomkins from full back like some on here are talking about, personally I dont think he ever will unless he improves a great deal. For me he is a decent player with a lot of potential but I just dont think he is really suited to a particular position, yet at least.

An honest assessment, but hopefully wrong



I can't see anyone displacing Tomkins for a while (he's that good), so maybe Russell can improve with a different coach and some first team game time

Yes Mr Briscoe is queing up behind one of rugby leagues next greats in Stevie Ward, until Hull start developing young talent of there own and stop wasting money on ageing NRL has beens and loanees they will continue to be under achievers. Ask Wigan, three years ago what was the best way forward and Lannagan followed Leeds in deveoping youth, now they are realistically challenging at the top. While many slate Leeds and gary hetherington on this forum he knows how to run a sucessful rugby league club. Developing youth is your only way forward, not deveoping youth for other clubs.

missed our staring line up for the last few weeks have we? we have played more youngsters from our u20s this season in 5 games than agar played in 4 years!

Not quite true, just most of the names are unrealistic.

=#0000FFThankfully it would seem they do.

No Einstein.

You should definitively finish your PHD and not let your high intellect go to waste.