Whilst I agree on the Talau thing, left centre was not the issue last night. There was one try that went down the left centre position, the rest of the match it was as tight as the rest of the line.



Last night was about our half backs, we did not use the position and the territory we had to any real effect. It took a barge from Ade and a show and go from TP to score.



We did not break the line to score at all. No bombs, no grubbers, no 2nd phase, no dummy runner, no feckin crossing for gods sake.



We had no cutting edge to break the Hull line.

I can think of several newspaper articles at the time of his signing which suggest otherwise.



He might have been playing second row at Sydney Roosters for a spell but the intention was for him to play at centre and its why he ended up wearing number 4. If you don't beleive me Google in "Saints sign New Zealand Centre Sia Soliola" and find the Guardian newspaper article about his signing and also read Eamonn McManus' comments about him being one of the best centres in the game at 22.!!!

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.



It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.



I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.



When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.



It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.



I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.



When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

If it's worth saying it's worth saying twice.

If saints thought he was the answer to the centre problem then whoever dies our recruitment is worse than I thought.



He was getting caught out as a 20yr old centre/winger with his lack of pace for a outside back and then add a couple of serious knee injuries.

Fully agreed. It was one of the reasons why we lost against Wigan in the Grand Final. Gleeson had a field day against Johnny Lomax at Old Trafford and at the time Potter was putting a different player in the left centre position week by week.

I've said it thousands of times over the years as you know.

I agree with you in that the recruitment in this regard has been bad and Soliola should never have been signed as a centre but he was!!! I was very suprised when he was signed as a replacement centre and many people at the time were saying the same thing as he had played most of his his recent rugby at second row and were questioning why and where he would infact play.

It's he in thing at saints at the moment. Laffranchci played backrow all his life and now been signed as prop.



Lance signed as a fullback and then been asked to play stand off.



Crazy recruitment but a idiot of a coach.

We are certainly not having as much luck in the recruitment stakes. We keep missing out on players such as Chris Hill, Waterhouse and Griffin and end up playing players out of position because we have to.



Although I do really like Lance Hohiah as a player I'm begining to think he was also a panic buy.



Back to the topic of the discussion though. The reality is that the left channel of defence does need improving as we are leaking too many tries on that side of the field and we need to look to bring in a proper left centre next season or the problems will remain.

Was I seeing things last night or did Shenton keep being used in the scrums.