Said it on a previous thread but Hammond has been disappointing for me this season. Still seems underpowered in the contact area compared to the other second row options. With the injury records of Steph, Lamb and the incoming Launchbury, we’ll need Hammond to be ready to step up.

That was almost exactly the point of my post. Hammond probably isn't physically ready to play more than a few games as a stop gap at Prem level. The club have done a decent job of gauging which players will mature into effective seniors. so give him time.

It was Marchant. Disappointing, but I think the ref dealt with it well.

A thought that strikes me about Hammond is that he may have a similar curve to Lamb.

There were a couple of years where Dino looked like he was heading towards being a fairly anonymous squad player who could do a job but wouldn't be a genuine first team contender, and then two years ago he came back from preseason looking like he'd bulked up a bit and has become a really solid operator who I think is a first choice in games where we need to disrupt the opposition more than have an extra heavyweight carrier.

Likewise, I suspect Hammond is at that age where the club are waiting for his muscles to catch up with his skeleton, but when he gets there he has all the skills to be the long term successor to Lewies.

Excellent news and thanks for using a hyphen.

PLEASE use a hyphen!