I thought the same, but I'd forgotten he's always been good, and sometimes even great, for about twenty minutes and then he goes into robot mode. If you recall back, the times he's looked good is when he did something 6-like out of hooker. But as the game went on you didn't see that again. His old man gave him more and more minutes last season and that really exposed him.
It's a bit of a conundrum: he's very ordinary at dummy half, lacking any of the creativity you occasionally see out of him at 6. But he doesn't have the concentration span to play 80 minutes in the halves.
Based on today's performance, I would expect round one to be: Paix at 9, Hunt at 6, Reynolds at 7 and Walters at 14. But it begs the question whether we'd be better with a different type of 14 if Billy can't bring any 6-like spark to the dummy half role.
We saw the contrast between the dummy halves today. Paix was a powerhouse. I did not expect that. Walters, Smoothy and Black, I don't know, none really did anything much beyond scoop and lob to first receiver. Paix was like a bulldog for the line.
Once Mozer returns I expect he'll go to 14, that's pretty simple. But when Mam returns one of Paix or Mozer will have to make way for Hunt. That will be another interesting contest because based on today, I think I'm favouring Paix.
