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Regarding Joel being put in the centre I just feel he lacks a bit of accelaration. Yes he is rapid for his size once he gets in to top gear but in my opinion he is a little bit vulnerable out wide if a quick centre just gets on the outside of him. A prime example of this would be Matt Cooper last weekend. On a couple of occassions he managed to get on the outside of Joel and make a lot of yards, yes Tomkins managed to catch him eventually but they had made a lot of ground and our defence was then a bit unsettled after tracking back. However I suppose Cooper is an exceptional talent at the end of the day and he wouldn't be facing centres of that quality every week. On the flip side he is such a stong runner that he will cause teams massive problems out wide. Will be interesting to see how Madge handles this one!

I think Charnley needs to be playing as much as possible in order to get to the point where he is 'ready'. I can't see how playing him the reserves is going to do anything to help his development and I've not seen any evidence to suggest he'll let us down.

Joel is an international class second rower and great in attack. So often Joel has had a crucial part in the moves we do where we miss out the centre all together and I think he'll get less ball at centre which can only be a bad thing.

Charnley foe me, Stefan Marsh is class, but has less top flight experience, so if it has to be an immediate choice, then definitely Josh.

As stated above, I reckon we have sufficient talent within our ranks without splashing out on a replacement centre.

That said, I'd make an exception for Rhys Evans. What a superb player he has the potential to be!

New signing for me. The only trouble is I doubt there are any top centres available.

I really don't think the young players have anything like the experience to fill Gleeson's shoes at centre. Ideally they would have got more game time this season in the first team if/when Gleeson was injured or just through squad rotation to give them games but to take the job on full time against the top sides? I think we will soon go off that idea.

Hope I am wrong and we have a Sam MkII in the centres but its a hard position to play.

DaveO wrote:New signing for me. The only trouble is I doubt there are any top centres available.

I really don't think the young players have anything like the experience to fill Gleeson's shoes at centre. Ideally they would have got more game time this season in the first team if/when Gleeson was injured or just through squad rotation to give them games but to take the job on full time against the top sides? I think we will soon go off that idea.

Hope I am wrong and we have a Sam MkII in the centres but its a hard position to play.

I'd be less worried if we had an otherwise full-strength back line out, but with Pat out for a while yet, and Amos still struggling, it's a very inexperienced threequarter line altogether.
Once those two are back, it's not too bad, with the options of Joel, Goulding, Marsh or Charnley at centre.

We're still better off than any other club, though. Take both first choice wingers and one first choice centre out of any other side, and they wouldn't have anything like the quality of possible replacements.

I'm quite happy to be arguing the relative merits of Joel, Marsh & Charnley at centre.

i think charnley and marsh should share the duties for a while. we're in quite a good position for this. most young players only get a chance when teams are injury riddles and not playing well. we have a chance to put them into a winning team and they'll gain a alot of confidence this way.