He definitely struggled in a lot of places, but it will only do him good as you said. It's a really big step up for the lad.

He kept Whatuira quiet in defence.

Personally felt he struggled in every aspect, but i think Goulding could have helped him out with his run into touch. He gave Marsh no option had he cut an angle i am certain he would have scored rather than allowing his team mate to be run into touch.

But he kept his opposite number absolutely quiet in defence, so i fail to see how he struggled?







Goulding could have come back inside, but Marsh had set his sights on the line, inexperience yes, but he will learn from that.

Liam Farrell looks like he's been playing first team for years!



His workrate is immense and he's a great threat with the ball. He looks the real deal and with the way he's playing I can't see him being left out of the side for quite some time.

TBH I liked to see him back himself, 9 times out of 10 he'd have scored from that position, it was a pretty good cover tackle that denied him.

I totally disagree with you there Jon. Not sure what you expected from a young player making his SL debut in an almost totally reshuffled three quarter line in such a high profile game against form opposition and one that O'Loughlin described as the the toughest of the season when talking about the first half! I thought he equipped himself rather well given the circumstances and stopped at least 2 clear cut try scoring opportunities, was strong and enthusiastic in defence and backed himself in attack. Not a flawless performance by any means but certainly looked the part. Struggled? Way off the mark in my opinion.

I think that's a bit much, he got through plenty of tackles and nearly scored a try. He was a little dominated in defence but not as much as you'd expect for a lad his size on debut, definitely didn't let anyone down.

I agree. That "double movement" tackle on Gilmour, for example, was top-drawer. Not his fault Tommy gave the penalty away.

Aye, I loved it when he got Hodgson in touch too, he wasn't taking no for an answer there! I haven't watched it back yet but was the first try down to him or Leuluai? The player went between them but I couldn't tell whos assignment he was, looked like Tommy slipped and Marsh expected him to get there.

think the primary tackler should have been lulu but when he steps in marsh needed to follow him. glesson would have done, its just getting used to each other. bar that marsh made a decent debut. having just seen him at the gym with the rest of the squad he looks a little small at the minute.

I thought that too, having said that they tend to muscle up pretty quickly once they're playing SL regularly, I don't think he'd have to put much on to get to the same size as Goulding.