Is it time for Adrian Morley who has been one of my favourite players ever to retire from test rugby. ?

he IMHO is not the fearsome player that he once was and maybe age and too many big games has caught up with him.

I would like to see him retire after next weeks final with the 4 nations winners trophy as his swansong.

this would extend his club career but also allow the new breed of props to come through to get the experience which will allow us to build a strong team for the next world cup.

time to hand over the mantle to Graham, Burgess and Big Eorl.

Which other props might be able to make the step up in the next 2 - 3 years.

i reckon Mossop at wigan will mov eto prop and could be a dark horse as a future prop with maybe Andy Raleigh doing the same thing.

I'm still wondering what Carvell has to do to get into an England shirt.

Morley has changed his game over the past few years to stop in getting in as much trouble with the disciplinary. That imo has been a problem at this level because you don't tend to get as many minutes on the field due to us having 4 or 5 top quality props. At Wire he's probably getting at least 60 minutes on a weekly basis and he can manage that. His contribution during games looks great because he's just churning out the metres and making his tackles.

Now that he's in an England shirt that doesn't look quite as impressive because he's not doing it over as big a period of time and people miss the old eye catching Morley who'd come firing out of the line and rattle people.

To sum up he's still a good player at this level imo but he's sharing his duties more then he does at Wire.

I can live with that.

Should anyone have to retire after that team performance yesterday?

The answer to that is no. Although Morley may not be the player he once was but neither are the likes of Fui Fui Moi Moi of New Zealand and Darren Lockyer of Australia. But these players still mean a lot to a team and that’s experience.

If you would of put a bunch of young guns against New Zealand literally yesterday and you would of seen a totally different score that wouldn’t of gone our way. Tony Smith has got the perfect blend of experience and youth yet people want the likes of Morley to retire despite his years of experience?

Morley had an excellent season for Wire and is doing the business for England. I would like to see him go down under with England next year for the same comp.
In the Tri Nations he played at the Sydney Football Stadium in GB's win there. I know it was his home ground with the Roosters but I was really surprised that whenever he took up the ball for GB the locals cheered him.
The Aussies were behind on the scoreboard and still they cheered Moz. In my book that makes him a very special player indeed.
For the Aussies to be behind in a game and cheering on a pommy player is something I'm not sure I'll ever see again.
I do hope he pays a last visit to the SFS in an England shirt next year and can lead from the front as he always has done.
There's only one Adrian Morley!

So, just to check:

we lose, we get threads criticising players.

We win, we get threads criticising players.

Give that man a diploma.

I thought Morley and Moi Moi were having a reet little battle last night.
Good stuff, i'd be tempted to bench him though and bring him on with crabtree, that would be fireworks

Or alternatively a lets build for the world cup thread as that is the most important RL event in this country for decades

Mike Cooper one for the future

I think this could possibly be his last series going off his performances so far. He does have that old man look about him and the way he is visibly affected everytime he's involved in a big collision.

If he has another good season for Warrington and no one else steps up to take his place then he'll be involved next year.

If we won next week I think he'd retire anyway.

Morley is still one of our best props. Graham, Peacock, Morley, Burgess, Carvell would be my order of top props.