The reason Robinson came back in ahead of Cowan seemed to be the scrum though. Neither of them are close to Slipper who is one of our best players. I think you've got to go down the route of picking your most solid scrum to come off the bench as opposed to wanting props who are better at running the ball. Horwill and Hodgson should have provided enough carrying options from the bench.
Cottrell is still returning from the broken leg to my knowledge.
I agree with your reasoning, but when Robbo/Alexander were on I couldn't say it was our strongest scrum. Actually went to pieces imo.
And unfortunately neither Hodgson nor Horwill provided enough carrying options so every time the ball went to either of the Ben(n)s the carry mostly went backwards. The bench still needs a lot of improvement.
For what it's worth, I would like to see PAE on the bench as Th cover, and in Scott Sio's absence probably Pek Cowan as LH cover. I am fairly comfortable with Horwill but I do not subscribe to having a No 7 on the bench unless it is to replace the starting No 7. Two No 7s on at the same time reduces the go forward in tight the team needs.
Hope to see Cottrill come into the squad when over his injury problems. He doesn't know how to take a backwards step.