You can't airbrush Edwards missing a tackle for a try a few weeks ago to concede a try so spare me the discussion about the Papalii try. All fullbacks miss tackles, drop bombs and misjudge kicks, it's just how often it happens that makes the difference. Considering the opposition and the slippery conditions, he did well as debut performance.
Why do you feel the need to compare a one game fullback against a veteran fullback? To this observer's eye, Staines showed that he will bring some much needed ball playing to the backline once we have a halfback that is.
That said, at the moment he doesn't read the game as well at fullback, and isn't as physically strong as Edwards yet, which after one game, who'd a thought? Come on Martie, nobodies saying Staines is the second coming, but he fielded an endless stream of massive bombs in dewy conditions and was playing against one of the better physical defensive teams in the competition. As a first out run it was pretty good. Might have been even better if we had a proper halfback to set up backline plays.......
Right now, Edwards is better, but what about next year. Let's see how he can go with a decent offseason on the weights and a bit more experience.