Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:10 am  

With most of the plaudits going to Jammer/Lomax/Gaskell I thought I'd mention Cloughy and Sia.

Soliola for me was absolutely outstanding. Everywhere in defence and making his presence felt in the tackle as always.

Cloughy did what Cloughy does - great in defence and makes some really hard yards for his team. Brilliant to have him back as I think we are a far, far tougher team to beat with him in the fold.

Shenton also ran himself into the ground - very determined performance from him.

Finally, I hope that yesterday will shut up those "weak squad" muppets up for a couple of weeks, and save us the whining about our cataclysmic freefall. 7 out (including 5 rep players) - some weak squad that is.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:12 am  

still not sold on Soliola. he had at least 2 Meliesque brain trumps yesterday that could have cost us dear.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:14 am  

Not bad from a lad with a lip hanging off.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:37 am  

I'm a huge Cloughie fan and I think next year, without Jammer, he's going to be the player that really racks up the yards.
Not the quickest on the floor, but he gains precious extra yards with his leg drives and is a rock in defence. Good engine on him too.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:22 am  

I ty clough was very quite but thats to be expected due to not much game time.

Sia was awesome in the first 20 mins. He really stuck to them

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:37 am  

Geoggy wrote:

still not sold on Soliola. he had at least 2 Meliesque brain trumps yesterday that could have cost us dear.

agreed .His knock on and needless penalty put us under massive pressure.He needs to cut these errors out of his game

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:02 pm  

Anybody else think Andrew Dixon ha an excellent game in defence? Took Tomkins down a couple of times one on one on our line and put a really solid effort in I thought.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:09 pm  

I think a lot of people forget how young Soliola is. He was still a youngster for a forward when we signed him (23) and he had already missed a a lot of rugby through injury. He is also relatively inexperienced as a second rower having played most of his career at centre. Whilst he does sometimes get too excited going in for big hits, I would much rather have him than not.

If you look at the likes of Ben Westwood five years ago as a comparison, he wasn't half the player he is now at 30. Sia is nowhere near the finished product and has the potential to be anything he wants to be.

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:20 pm  

Trav2005 wrote: Not bad from a lad with a lip hanging off. Agreed

Trav2005 wrote: Not bad from a lad with a lip hanging off. Agreed

Re: Paul Clough & Sia Soliola : Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:39 pm  

BackrowSaint wrote:

Anybody else think Andrew Dixon ha an excellent game in defence? Took Tomkins down a couple of times one on one on our line and put a really solid effort in I thought.

Thought Dixon had a good game, excellent in defence, looked agressive.