I’m sober now so will accept that head & shoulders was a tad enthusiastic! That said, stand by my opinion that Holmes had a better season that either Milner or Ashurst.
As with any player; this is is subjective & I suppose it depends what you want & or expect from a second rower; so for the benefit of this specific debate I obviously went with what I saw; admittedly I saw more of Holmes than Ashurst so view is skewed in his favour, but I also looked at the following:
Tries:
Holmes 9
Ashurst 4
Tackles:
Holmes 710
Ashurst 1058
Missed tackles:
Holmes 29
Ashurst 42
Tackle busts:
Holmes 39
Ashurst 42
Metres:
Holmes 1976
Ashurst 1916
Av. Gain:
Holmes 7.24
Ashurst 6.92
Clean breaks:
Holmes 10
Ashurst 8
Errors:
Holmes 10
Ashurst 18
Offloads:
Holmes 14
Ashurst 9
Penalties:
Holmes 18
Ashurst 28
I think that both Ashurst & Holmes are good, honest players so I won’t be too upset if people see it differently!