I think Micky has been a very good servant to our club, he is not the most natural hooker but I could never question his commitment and desire.
I also think the club has made the right decision to let him go. By his own admission he cannot play big minutes anymore and he is coming to the end of his career. We all agree that we need a change of playing style and some fresh impotence in the halves.
I hope this is the trigger to move Sam to half back to partner Williams and TL to hooker. Tommy has shown for NZ that even though he has pretty much always played at #7 for his club #9 is his best position. He’s a strong defender and a better ball player and runner than Micky.
In the halves Sam & Williams appears to be a more exciting option than Williams & TL and hopefully Escare can pick up where he left off prior to injury and also improve defensively. I still have a few reservations about Escare and ideally would like to sign another half and keep Sam at FB but I doubt that is an option a month before the season starts.
1 Escare
6 Williams
7 Tomkins
9 TL
13 SOL
That looks like a pretty good spine to me, hopefully Wane will give his props licence to run the ball a bit more.