Phoenix Crossland discussion

I’m not sure he’s the fastest. Interesting with hookers like Grant how quick they are, or it’s just elusiveness with his hands and movement.
 
At the moment Phoenix is a part time hooker and I'm sure if he is given the position on a permanent basis he will only improve. I do like him out wide where he played later in the season but you need someone at least at his level to push him out of the number nine roll.
 
Great squad member.
He's done a workmanlike job at 7, 6, 9 and he even went OK at centre in one game.
The minimum he gives is hard work and aggression in every game.
Other teams developed the idea of a smaller, 80 minute lock with a few passing and playmaking skills, and it really suited his skillset.
However you look at it, he's in our 17 somewhere.
 
Seriously about 5-6 times pheens should have run yesty. 1 try went begging for him if he run it. Such a team player though and wants to just do his simplified job. If he actually looked up rather than "scanning" he really could've gained 15-20 metres for his team.
 
krustykraz said:
I'm very happy that Crossland and Brown had this time together and built a bit of continuity.
Also super happy they experienced some time in a winning team. Hopefully they learnt some thing to bring the winning culture back to Newy.
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How did Crossland go? I honestly missed most of the game.
 
Sheent14 said:
How did Crossland go? I honestly missed most of the game.
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He was targeted very heavily by Samoa, particularly Haas, who bumped him off in tackles deliberately and repeatedly, but Crossland slowed the big forwards down enough for Kiwi forwards to get there. Last time I looked, towards the end of the game, Crossland had 8 missed tackles, and some of them looked spectacular, with Haas running directly at him and palming him so hard he bounced back metres.
In short, you can see why he got a bad rating from some reviewers, but the huge Samoa pack had a clear gameplan to target him as the little guy in the defensive line and he held his gloves up. The Kiwi coach was happy enough to leave him on at hooker till the final minutes of the game, when it was very much won. He was at his best at dummy half, and weathered his biggest ever test in defence in a way that few other hookers would have managed better.
 
Now that he is allowed to play for NSW and New Zeland, is he now a sneaky bolter for dummy half in the mighty sky blue?
 
If they have a 19 man squad, Crossland might be a good 19 to cover anywhere but prop and fullback
 
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