Disregard his age for a minute

[mat073]

I cant stop myself playing devils advocate....

If we are to judge players purely on ability and not age...Why was the decision to drop Joel Bowden so celebrated ?

Joels may not have SuperStar status like Richo....but despite his flaws you could argue he was playing well enough to be considered in our top 22 .

[FooffooValve]

As much as he is an absolute champion who deserves to play 300 games, unless we find another forward of equal or close to equal ability, then our forward line will never function properly with him there.

It's possible that he could play an Alistair Lynch role for a maybe two more years, but we need a Jonathon Brown at CHF to make that work. Clearly he isn't going to play as a wingman for another two years.

If we can't see that happening, then I'd send him off this year if he can make it back for a few games. We need to get on with constructing a new functioning forward line.

[Chuck17]

I cant stop myself playing devils advocate....

If we are to judge players purely on ability and not age...Why was the decision to drop Joel Bowden so celebrated ?

Joels may not have SuperStar status like Richo....but despite his flaws you could argue he was playing well enough to be considered in our top 22 .

Definitely think he is playing well enough to be well and truly in our top 22.  It's just that he is replaceable and as he wont be there next year in all likelihood while Richo on the other hand can still add value to the team moving forward to 2010.

Why was it celebrated?, well some RFC supporters believe he is living proof of the culture of selfishness in our players that has lead to our teams poor on field perfomrance.  However the same could be said of Richo but as he is near god status he is nowhere near the target Bowden is.

[Judge Roughneck]

Richo would be handy in the forward line - after that effort