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With Scott Prince out injured until April, at the earliest, there is a chance for any number of players to take a stranglehold on the number six or seven jerseys. Players got their first opportunity to make a good impression in the Broncos' opening trials and there were many players who did a sound job in the number six and seven jerseys on the weekend. The Broncos were defeated easily in both trials, losing 66-18 to the Bulldogs before following that with a 34-12 loss at the hands of the Sydney Roosters.

The halves positions are still very much up for grabs because there was no player who starred for the Broncos in either the half-back or five-eighth position, or for the Broncos at all for that matter. Against the Canterbury Bulldogs, Elia Tuqiri and Allan Langer (pictured) played in the six and seven shirts respectively whilst Casey MacGuire and Shaun Berrigan held the halves duties for the Broncos against the Sydney Roosters on Saturday.

I didn't catch the Friday night game where Canterbury thrashed an out-of-sorts Brisbane, as it was at Toowoomba, but have a fair idea of what happened in the match and how both Elia Tuqiri and Allan Langer performed. From what I've gathered from various reports, neither player played exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly. Allan Langer played only half the game but was quite creative during that time. In the first quarter of the trial, Langer was dominant, throwing many good passes and threading deft kicks while not running the ball excessively. Playing behind a badly beaten pack, Langer's form slipped in the second quarter, highlighted by the fact that he threw an intercept pass to Nigel Vagana 10 metres out from the line and watched as the speedy centre raced 90 metres to score.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear as much about Elia Tuqiri's performance as I did on Allan Langer's. I do know, however, that Tuqiri set up the Broncos' first try with a clever cross-field kick that was grounded by winger David Seage. In attack, Tuqiri showed glimpses of promise but defended on the wing, a move that surprises me as I thought he was quite a strong tackler.

Saturday's trial was much closer, a 34-12 defeat at the hands of the Sydney Roosters. As they did in Friday's trial, the Broncos used a half-strength line-up against the Roosters - who played with a side chock-full of permanent first graders. Much like their trial against the Bulldogs, the Broncos' Casey MacGuire and Shaun Berrigan (pictured) were solid without performing outstandingly. Berrigan outstripped MacGuire, who made a couple of uncharacteristic errors.

Shaun Berrigan played solidly for the Broncos behind a beaten forward pack and thus

struggled to have a big impact with his classy running game - the strongest aspect of his attacking game. He still organized the Broncos' attack well and ran with authority when given the opportunity.

Casey MacGuire, one of the Broncos' many cherished youngsters, had a disappointing game, failing to make an impact in attack and being unable to orchestrate any real attacking chances. After struggling to star in the number six jersey for the first 60 minutes, MacGuire was switched to full-back for the last quarter of the game, where the youngster made a few errors.

Judging from these four individual performances, it is clear that the Broncos are missing Scott Prince and Ben Ikin and that neither of the halves positions have been settled upon. The thing that was most after the completion of the two trials was that the Broncos would need a few more trials to decide on who should hold the halves spots - two of the most critical spots on a football field.