Was Lance Hohaia really with us for four years? If you'd have said he was here for one year, I'd have believed you. 4 years?
Leon Pryce
Lee Gaskell
Lance Hohaia
Travis Burns
Jonny Lomax
Was Lance Hohaia really with us for four years? If you'd have said he was here for one year, I'd have believed you. 4 years?
I agree,he was far better than people make him out to be. He was begining to form a decent partnership with Walsh and was an important part of getting us to the LLS and Gf. He never lacked effort and was really kind of messed around by being moved around position wise.
I don't think he or Laffranchi, who we signed at the same time, were bad players, but they were bad signings because they were recruited to fill roles that they weren't equipped for. They also maxed out our overseas quota, which set us back a couple of years as we had limited options to strengthen in other areas where we had obvious weaknesses.
I get the whole overseas could of been used better argument and yes that is a fair and very valid point. But we have a player in Pryce who is included this very poll who played 6 for us but was winger or centre before he moved to us. I can understand up to a point signing a fullback to play 6 as they are more or less used as an extra pivot and usually have the passing game to match.
Laffranchi woooah
Laffranchi woooah
Hes comes from Italy to play in the red vee
Laffranchi woooah
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This. Put Hohaia alongside Long or a fully fit Walsh and you’ve got yourself a different player. Could have been excellent for us in the same mould McGuire was at Leeds. Another sign of mismanagement was persisting with him at stand off for so long, if I recall he never got a run at full back despite that being clearly his best position.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
I dont think the side he played in helped, ive just looked at the 2013 side for reference, can anyone say that side was anything other than average, hardly any pace in the backs and a forward pack containing Laffranchi and Puletua, the side was old and slow, i doubt even a real world class player would have shone in it.
I thought he looked a better player in 2014 with an experienced half back alongside him in Walsh and some more dynamic players in the team.
Absolutely testament to the commitment and professionalism of Lomax that he is comfortably winning this poll. I struggle to think of any player that has gone through the injury setbacks he has and come out as strong on the other side. Really great that he is starting to get the adulation he deserves.
Although playing most of his rugby at SR, he played prop for Wests when they won the GF, and played prop intermittently for Gold Coast. He wasn't by any stretch a total novice as a prop.
He was also entering the twilight of his career, had lost some of the pace that had made him a very good SR, and added some bulk. There've been countless examples of big SR's moving to prop as they get older. When we signed Laffranchi, we still had hopes Perry would recover some form, and I presume the thinking was that Laffranchi could be a sub prop - his mobility better able to exploit a tiring defence. As it turned out, Perry just continued his holiday here and Laffranchi was used as a 'grunt' prop, for which he wasn't really suited.
That whole period was characterised by us making recruitment decisions that looked fine 'on paper' but which didn't work out, often for reasons beyond our control.
I think it could be summarised with us as a club having a run of really crappy luck.