We have made a mess of the recruitment for props / middles over the last couple of years. We started the 2024 season with Dudson, Kassiano and Bullock all given squad numbers and none of them made it through the season. Luke Thomas unfortunately suffered an injury that meant he would be out of action for the best part of a year. 
We signed Yates and I assume we gave him squad no 13 because that's where we thought he would play. 
So we end up with a 13 playing up front. Our best second rower playing 13 (although Currie has done a great job) all because we are a few props short of a picnic. 


It rarely works out well when you shuffle players positions to fill a gap. Look at Catalan. They lost McIllorum but I assume they couldn't find a hooker so moved Ben Garcia to 9. Whereas all that has done is weaken them at 13. 


So since the start of 2024 we have lost 4 props and you can question the performances of Musgrove, Bullock, Kassiano and Dudson but given that Yates was signed as a 13 then I don't think we have replace 1 of them. 


I would be happy with Yates and Crowther rotating at 13 and Currie back in the second row if we had signed a full on prop forward. Not sure Stone is the answer to all our problems. 


I just wonder if Burgess can only deal with forwards in his own image (a bit like Briers frustrations coaching halfbacks that don't have the vision that he had). I also wonder how much planning was put into getting his brother to sign for us rather than Huddersfield. It might explain a bit

Tomato Tomatoe

There was no hope at all of Williams escaping criticism on this one. No comment or telling it as it was at the time ... he was going to get stick. 

I'm just happy we're keeping him to be honest, couldn't care less what people say, he's class and has been since we signed him.
A crap forward pack and weak inconsistant team have made his job much harder than it should be. We're not a one man team but people seem to think he should be working miricles and winning our games single handedly.
He's been completely up front about everything, glad he's staying, if we can keep Vaughan, with Byrne and a fitter  TPJ coming in we're much stronger next year.
I wonder if Dan Okoro will be in and around the team next year? Cas have ended his loan spell and he's being loaned out to London for the rest of the year apparently?

I'm just happy we're keeping him to be honest, couldn't care less what people say, he's class and has been since we signed him.
A crap forward pack and weak inconsistant team have made his job much harder than it should be. We're not a one man team but people seem to think he should be working miricles and winning our games single handedly.
He's been completely up front about everything, glad he's staying, if we can keep Vaughan, with Byrne and a fitter  TPJ coming in we're much stronger next year.
I wonder if Dan Okoro will be in and around the team next year? Cas have ended his loan spell and he's being loaned out to London for the rest of the year apparently?

Yes I am glad he is staying. We have probably been guilty of squandering his time with us since 2021 with the pack we have had.