This is a proper pre season kind of thread. It is full of optimism and a fair bit of insecurity. Even if you do not know the statistics you are still aware that the chances of any of the young untried lads being world beaters is still pretty slim even at this stage in their careers. The older rookies have settled in and have done a very good job for us with Partington (if you can still call them rookies) probably outshining Smithies and Byrne, and most fans would be happy to see more of the same. One problem though is that we are talking up this crop of youngsters because of a perceived unbalance or weakness in the squad. Every few days we see Leeds or Saints signing another big prop but we always have the elephant in the room, a large part of our cap money is still going on players who will play limited minutes, if at all.
Do not get me wrong. We have a very good squad which at full fitness could go head to head with anyone but we will be without our number one attacking prop (according to earnings). If there is no money to bring in a replacement we will be using the youngsters at some point in the season and I for one am always hopeful that a couple of them may be the real deal.