If we don’t have a clean out and attempt to rebuild our backs i don’t see us be able to compete in many games, our back line is our Achilles heel, Tom excluded. Our 7 is our 7 until 2024, unfortunately for Foz his time has come, he can’t compete with the speed of the game and will only fall further behind as time moves forward, it’s a no brainer we need a 6 with speed, I know most see shoe as our 6 and I’d like to see how he goes there myself, but he may be our answer to an edge playing back rower moving forward or even a centre (bare with me here) or lock as we all know that Jake will struggle with game speed moving forward, (as I don’t see Sirro adding value to the side) he has a good defensive game and can provide us with more ball playing options from our edge forwards (think of our attack, Sirro? Jake? Or Shoe) either way this could give us an opportunity to rethink our 6, (with speed in mind, ie a walker, Luia type 6! who exactly is a question mark) I think we all agree our centre pairing whom ever we choose from our current roster is not going to take us to any great heights, so we need a 3 and 4 (our centre pairings have been a huge part of our problem) We may not be able to rebuild our whole back line so our 2 and 5 get to survive the clean out for now, Saab deserves some time on potential and if Garrick can build on his form from the warriors game he may play himself back into some value for the team, I’m not sold on him, but he may just prove us wrong yet, anyway if he can’t find form then his times well and truely up.
So looking to the future,
1 tom
2 saab (on potential and future improvement)
3 fill this space (walker if we can’t recruit better)
4 fill this space (shoe?) (tuipulotu?)
5 garrick (on notice)
6 fill this space ( shoe?)
7 chez
8 Taniela
9 manase/lawton
10 aloia
11 Sua (would need to sign him, but I like it)
12 haumole
13 shoe (Jake)
bench ?
14 cust (utility role, 6,7, 9)
15 sipley
16 Sadler (prop/second row)
17 Jake? This is a hard one, perhaps Jake stays in 13 for now and shoe plays 6 or in the centre’s, he would give us ball playing skills inside and out and improve our edge defence which we badly need, then keppie moves into 17 (needs to lift his work rate)
its a bit incomplete and a work in progress, but there’s a strong outfit there up front, I know I snuck Sua in there, I’d love to see that happen, we would need to sign Sua of course (moving Marty on gives us that chance) find a centre pairing (this could include shoe and solve our overloaded engine room) meaning we only need one centre (walker would be the obvious if we can’t find better and can resign him at the right money). Leaving us open for a quality 6 if we don’t go with shoe, if it’s shoe we need another centre, (suli, Harper and Parker will never take us where we need to go)
so we can build a strong competitive side with 3 good signings,
1) sua
2) centre? (find This player)
3) a quality 6 or another centre depending on where shoe plays, I know playing players out of position has been well discussed but shoe looks to be one of those special types that could be used successfully in a number of roles to build a stronger side. (So find us this player be it a 6 or another centre) there is the bones of a really strong side there with 3 good signings, it looks like it could be super competitive and place our club back on a path to success.
