Roger will play wing, no doubt in my mind. His strengths are his yardage, and communication/experience. He always gets on the front foot with space & late footwork. Less playmaking decision making, more carry’s & effort.
I’m also pretty settled on the halves, Metcalf & TMM. They’ve shown they can work together, and TMM was one of the leading try assist & line break assists in the competition in his time at 7. Metcalf has the capacity to kick big metres (300+) in nsw cup, we’ve seen it. However, we also had the most tackles in the opposition 20m, IN THE COMP. We don’t need big kickers, we need correct pass selection, short kicking game & to score points. I believe these two can do it for us.
My biggest headache is the centres/fullback role. We’ve got taine, whilst inexperienced has never let the team down & brings speed to our backline sweep, something CNK does not. Charnze is the incumbent & is for me the starter, he’s earned it. He’s big on effort and rarely lets the team down. However his ability to play multiple positions does open up that door, and the question is, are taine and charnze in our top 17 players at the club?
Then the centres; berry, Leiataua, Pompey, (charnze). Personally, I’m going with Berry and Ali. Berry was one of comps strongest defenders, and our edges leaked too many points out wide when he wasn’t in the side. He’s also young, and is developing really nicely into a kicking option & hole runner out wide. Ali, too, has earned this spot. He’s been waiting in the wings for a few years now & has shown game breaking ability, and X factor. Having a defensively strong centre & a strike centre is the best balance imo. Then there’s the option of CNK to centre, taine to fb. For me, Rocco and Ali get the spot.
Back row is another interesting headache, with Capewell locking down one spot, with lock & the other edge up for grabs. There’s a few options here. Ford has errors in his game, but he also just re signed & they clearly have faith in him. He makes a ton of tackles, can score a try & works his ass off. Marata is another option, but I believe he’s a middle & would’ve played middle had it not been for so many injuries, this was stated by webby in 2023 pre season, and was where he started.
Theres also the lock conundrum. Tohu was busted, so I think it’s unfair to base what he brings to the table based off playing with a broken wrist for most of 2024. He looked off the pace & was uncharacteristically missing tackles that were his bread and butter. He’s still tohu Harris, the captain, premiership winning, international backrow & I think he does bounce back to start at 13. Walker brought a different aspect to the lock role, with speed, and superior link play with our halves. However I feel his best use is brought on as impact, against tiring defenders. There’s also the option of tohu playing prop with fish, Barnett as an edge initially, to then rotate to mid, bring Tohu off & bring on another edge in ford or halasima, if they go that route. It may even be a horses for courses approach with Tohu and Walker rotating, depending on opposition/game plan. Tohu to stiffen up the middle for 20-25 mins, then walker leg speed, or we go out the gate with shape and speed early.
My side is:
CNK
RTS
BERRY
LEIATAUA
DWZ
METCALF
TMM
FISH
EGAN
HARRIS
CAPEWELL
BARNETT
WALKER
CLARKE
VAIMAUGA
FORD
NIUKORE
The bench offers 3/4 props, 1 hooker option & one edge option. Niukore & ale/vaimauga are the bench props, with ale/vaimauga no more than 20-25mins, marata no more than 40. Ford can also play middle fairly well, but can cover edge or spell tohu, for Barnett to move to the middle.
We also can’t afford to carry a pure bench hooker, this is where Clarke comes in. He’s a fast mobile middle, but grew up as a hooker & can play it for 20-25 whilst spelling Egan if need be. Carrying lussick is not the option, as he’s an out and out hooker, and whilst defensively sound, is there as Egan injury cover and was unused multiple times a year, hurting the middle/back end of the game as our mids tired. Clarke is our bench hooker, who plays middle predominantly. Perhaps comes on late in the first, off early in the second, then spells Egan around 60 mins.. we will see. This is what I’d like to see personally.
Keen to hear your thoughts
