Quote Rob Wire="Rob Wire"Granted their will be people that have seen more of Ben Harrison than i have so you will be in a better position to comment on him than me, i can`t quite decide if he`s the real deal or not.
In some of the games ive seen him in you think to yourself "Yeh, this lad has got something about him" where as in other games he looks slow to react in defence and doesn`t show up a great deal in attack.
When he`s on his game he seems to put in some monster shots and he offloads really well, too often though he seems to go missing especially when we have the ball. Maybe its my eyesight but the weight seems to be going back on a bit, to me he should be played at prop from now on as thats where i see his future especially with Carvell being out.
I know JWP is a fan of Ben Harrison so his input will be worth reading.'"
I think first & foremost he's a developing player, developing rapidly and who knows what level he'll take his game too. If you looked at him over say the last two years, he's gone from bit-part to integral, so he's doing something right. He's probably long term a prop isn't he, but he's performing a role at loose forward for us, and he's doing it pretty well. I've actually been mildly disappointed with him this year but it's a long season with a fair time ro run yet so his best times may yet be to come.
I reckon sometimes we focus a bit too much on what folk can't do rather than talk about what they can. In Ben's case, i'm not always so sure it's about what he can't do, but more what about he chooses not to, or perhaps is told not to do. He probably isn't the best passer of a ball in our side, so he's instructed to leave the bulk of it to folk who are. That said, he'll be improving his core skills all the time, so he'll get better. A year back, he didn't have an offload, at all. Now, he's got a good offload, an offload after collision, and it is an offload, not a fling & hope a la Rauhihi, it's a second phase offload - he'll just get better, and more experienced at when to use it.
I think his main asset is stopping opposition go forward, we have stats galore for metres gained with ball in hand, no stats for metres stopped - if there was, there wouldn't be many if any LF's in superleague ahead of him. If you're looking for somebody to get off the line, meet the opposition and put a shot on somebody he's up there with the best of them. In this respect, he has great body language in terms of leadership, him & Westwood are up & at you, they'll stop your go forward, they make you earn your yards and the same for Louis Anderson too, talk folk about our front row alot, but our back row is pretty uncompromising too.
He's not flash is he ? I think that's good. Too many young ones look the part but deliver little. He's a worker, a real dour workhorse who's got a bit of skill also. In say, four years - I'd be happy with him & Coops as our starting props I'll tell you that much.
