Are teams trying to win more than last season though? You could argue the opposite was happening at Wakey under Webster.

You played last week without this signing and did really well against the best team away and I'm sure you will have more bodies back this week, if you don't have another forward ready to step up, then maybe you didn't deserve that recent good rating for your academy system.

A bit of a pointless dig at rovers really larroyer lunt where wanted on permanent deals i can't say wether Burke is or isn't wanted on a permanent deals, and the 2 come in this week are to get us through a terrible time with injuries, loan deals are coming more regular now by most clubs

I'm distrustful of RFL ratings. Hangover from the licensing debacle, and I think their approach is way too one-size-fits-all prescriptive.
When I win Euro millions, I'll have glance at their tick sheet, borrow anything that i think is useful and then have a think about what might really work and what is really the best way to allocate resources.

Teams are limited on what they can spend on players outside the top 25 earners. Most teams carry 6 or 7 I think. As it happens, we could really do with a prop and we've mainly got backs and backrowers.

tbf, if Campese, Kelly and Blair were all out long-term, I'd not be calling for a Marsh-Robinson half back pairing to fill the breach for any great length of time either..

You don't become ready by playing before you're ready.

Given that the 'Good' rating was given a matter of weeks ago I doubt it's likely that we'll see the results on the pitch for a few years yet.

Or were you just trying to make a cheap dig...?

Tony Puletua, very good player back in the day, will give us a bit of size and experience when we are lacking,

When did he last play? Was a good player at saints and will add some size, what happened at Salford?

Weyman & Bailey gone for good, Allgood, Walker & Tilse all medium to long term absent.

Losing 5 experienced props would force anyone into the loan market but we'll still have 2 local products as our starting 8 & 10 on Saturday. At this stage of the season availability of quality players is next to zero so I think Chris Chester has done well to bring in Greenwood & Puletua. Who else could he have got...at this stage....of better quality?

Maybe you think that if Hull were to lose their 5 most experienced prop forwards for a significant period they would simply rely on local kids but with respect I think that is a very naive point of view.

Puletua I agree would have been a better signing 5 years ago .........so would Leon Pryce, Mark Minichiello and Gareth Ellis. But unlike them he is strictly short term and a minor investment.

BTW Larroyer & Lunt technically are loan signings but they have finished permanently with their parent clubs and will not be going back. Larroyer definitely and Lunt probably will be signing deals to stay, the loan deals were a mechanism to get things over the line and allow time for further negotiation.

You have been in SL for a good few years now your academy should be ready to support your first team. Rovers fans have used that for years.

You can't still count Bailey and Weyman as they left months ago and one of them has been replaced already.

I forgot about Lunt, so that's 5 loan players.

People who know my posts, know I'm not a troll or after cheap digs, I'll give rovers credit with signings etc, but this is disappointing, I'd rather have a young lad playing then a 35 year old average player who hasn't played for months. I'd say the same if Hull signed him, like I did when we signed Howarth.

Watch him score the winning try on Saturday now !!!!

Wigan saints and Leeds apart could any other team lose there 4 main prop forwards plus weyman and Bailey and have the academy players to back them up?

I'm really not sure where some of the fc posters are coming from here. We are currently utilising as many of our local squad and academy players as we can, but the truth is Rome wasn't built in a day and although they have performed admirably, they can't be expected to perform at the top of their game week in week out. Yes weyman has been gone a while and tilse has replaced him, then add Allgood, walker and bailey to the mix. 4 props out of 5/6 that the club thought ready to play, so what else is a club to do than look to get players in on loan. It's just the most sensible thing to do. I still feel for Matty beharell getting run over by Wigan. He never played first team again. Was that as a consequence of being thrown in to early.. We will never know, but chucking players in at prop who aren't ready is just bloody stupid and could end a career before its started.

Good solid signing, we can't just throw a load of academy players into the fray, we need to substitute experience with experience and thats what I see with this signing.

He's a prop and they tend to play longer then most positions, so I dont see his age being an issue in the slightest. A good signing to plug a gap in the team for a season, that'll do me

I agree, I'd love to be pumping out young players on a conveyor belt like Wigan, Leeds and Saints, but we'd have to have had this improved academy in place for about 6 years already if we wanted to be seeing results now, which since that was about our 3rd season in Super League after a long absence from the top flight, would be an unrealistic expectation, I think.

So, in a nutshell, Rovers fans are happy with this signing. Hull fans aren't. Does anyone even care?

Hull fans like me come on here to discuss rugby and so far it's a good debate, isn't that what this forum is about, I'm sure there is a private Rovers forum if you don't want fans of other teams to put their opinions on here.

Makes you wonder why FC went and signed Liam Colburn when you had a queue of young talent just itching to get on the pitch.

Spot on,says it all.

I was really disappointed with that signing, but maybe I have have higher standards than Rovers fans who seem happy to have signed a 35 year old who hasn't played for 8 months.

Again why are you using Hull as a bench mark and even bringing Hull into the discussion?

Dave K you are usually a fair poster but you do seem to be preaching a bit tonight every team has injuries ours seem to have all happened to our props so this loan signing was needed as a short term fix but you saying we should have players ready to step up is like me saying why haven't you produced a set of home grown backs like leeds I also think we need to revert to at least an under 21 set up to replace the 19s

I can't imagine anyone wanting to use Hull FC as a benchmark.
How is the young must be from Hull local lad half back school coming along?

The way the prop situation is Dave anybody is better than nobody

Yet, in either post you seem to mention hull or compare yourself to us.

Again you mention Hull in a totally irrelevant way, and to answer your question it seems to be going OK, we have 3 very good young halfbacks coming through.

We had no academy props who were promoted to our first team squad this year.

Esslemont is a second rower and IMO is not yet good enough for regular first team action. I saw Steven Holker make his debut at Leeds and he made more of an impression on me in 21 minutes with his energy and running than Sonny Esslemont has in 6 times as much first team action.

Personally I am happy with the signing of Tony Puletua, although a bit miffed that he can't turn out for us against Salford in future. He will add weight and bulk in the middle as well as a bit of aggression. In a perfect world, we would have Allgood, Tilse and Walker fit to play against Hull this weekend. Sadly, not to be, but we won't be overrun with Puletua there.

When you are out of options, you take the best alternative and TP is it.

I am still a good poster, just because you don't agree with me doesn't make it wrong or preachy( is that a word?), id be saying the same if Hull had signed him, all teams have injuries, but other clubs handle it very differently, saints had no halfs and as many injuries as Rovers, but used youth players and squad rotation to deal with it.

Last week you did ok with your props and should have players back, so you could have survived without this signing.

Agree on the last point, I'd like to see it under 21.