The loose forward to me is a link between the backs and the forwards, its an extra pair of ball playing hands in the pack that can also tackle and take the ball up when required.



Have a look at some of the best loose forwards down the years like Hanley, Fittler, Farrell and Paul Sculthorpe just to name a few. Each one of those could create tries, make breaks, had great ball playing hands, could step a defence and make regular breaks and they would also weigh in with a fair few tries during their careers.



BTW, its not having a go at Ben Harrison as he probably isn`t playing loose forward by choice.



I`d be interested to see how he`d go with a regular run at prop, he hits hard in defence and can offload and can make decent metres.







Not with Carvell out injured, i thought Grix would have gone to 13 with Harrison as one of our props when we heard how long Carvell would be out for.

As said above, depends on the mix of the team. I wouldn't have thought we would need another pivot or link with Briers, Monaghan, Myler and Hodgson on the field. Plus Big Dave off the bench who adds an extra dimension and whose handling and passing is as good any specialist back.

I understand what your saying Rob, not forgetting Mike Gregory from that list, but he's still only young 20 is he. All of them players you have menshioned were in there prime, he has alot to learn and along way to go but definately one for the future.

To be fair he did start at prop on saturday.

we definatley need a loose forward,ben harrison is definatley a prop forward imo.i think che will certainly look into recruiting one,who would people like as lf?i'll go with kevin sinfield,a ideal lf,and can goal kick imo.

Unfortunately it seems to me that the days of the ball playing loose forward are gone. A lot of the time they adopt the roll of a 3rd prop. I like Grix there as he does have craft and a kicking game. The more players you have who can ask the opposition defence more questions the better side you are. Ben H is a reallly good prop/2nd row for me not a LF but we need him somewhere in the 17.

No. Not needed. Next.

The 2 most successful SL teams in recent times have both gone with ball playing loose forwards, saints with Sculthorpe and Flannery and Leeds with Sinfield. I`d hardly say the days of the ball playing loose forward are gone.



Both Saints and Leeds down the years have had pace, speed and ball playing hands in the back row which is where i think we fall short a bit. Between them they have had the likes of Wilkin, Gilmore, Ellis and Ali Lauitiiti at his peak of whome all had pace, ball playing hands and could create and score tries. We are very workmanlike in our backrow, it will get us by in some games but you just feel that we could be a lot stronger in that area.

Sums up a prop forwards job in my view.

Whats a LF's job then?

I don't think Rob_Wire is far off the mark in my view.







Put simply a LF should be seen as an extra pack member in defence and an extra back in attack.

Would you put Sinfield and Flannery in the same bracket as Hanley or Mike Greg. I wouldn't but times change I suppose.