I think he is a total waste of space and a bench spot.
I strongly disapprove of the 4 forward bench for the reasons highlighted last night, no injury cover. I think it is utterly ridiculous to have 5 props in your team. If your props aren't able to play 40 minutes each then they need some stamina training. Adding another prop to the bench isn't going to help. At one stage last night, even before Ropo's injury Bluey had 3 props on the field. That is madness. We lose so much ability, intelligence and agility when you ditch a scond rower for a prop. We had both Mara and Mateo sitting down while Ukuma made ineffective runs.
His hands have never been good and he is too easily manipulated by opponents. All it takes is a little word in his ear in a tackle and he will throw away possession with an emotional brain explosion. Then he needs to redeem himself, which he usually does with a reckless tackle, a swinging arm or a high shot. We can't afford that anymore. Granted he is doing it less than last year, but if he can't control it he should be working on it in the Vulcans while some back cover takes his seat on the bench.
Lousi, for mine, has done extremely well this year, though his form has been down over the past couple of games. Last year I felt he was exactly the same as Ukuma with his ball security and his emotions, but he has removed most of that this year. He is still only injury cover for our props and when Rapira gets back, I think we should lose both Ukuma and Sione from the squad.
I really wish we would stop falling into the same trap every time we play the Roosters where it becomes about who can put on the biggest hit. We get so hung up on that, that we miss the fact the Roosters are running all over us. Let Wairea-Hargreaves and Mase Masoe try to dominate, and simply play our own game and we will dominate them on the scoreboard. It was good to see Matulino avoid the hype of trying to out-hit Hargreaves last night. JWH is a coward, anyway. He only ever went at Ben as second or third tackler and had no intention of squaring off against him.
