What is with the love for Turner? He can't defend for toffee, I'll never forget that Wakefield centre making him look like a ghost at home and his attack consists of jogging to near the line, stopping and doing that embarassing goose step thing and then collapsing under the tacklers. Turner has only impressed me once and that was a flick pass somewhere (Possibly Wigan?)

Towards the end of the season, he put makinson in for a couple of tries with some very good play in the opponents' 20. He'd run a line back towards the ball and hit a gap, which would persuade the winger to come in, before getting the pass to mak to score. In that situation, its very a hard pass to make without it going forward.

See!!!!! There you go again trying to explain rugby league to an idiot!

It doesn't make him Paul Newlove, but its something that so-called superstars like RYan Atkins would continually fail to do.

Its always hard to tell with the younger players coming through until they have performed consistently well for a few seasons and fully proven themselves. 2 years ago, I would have backed Foster to mount a challenge for an England wing shirt in the near future and now I wouldnt even rate him in the top 10 English wingers in SL. The likes of Swift, Percival, Jones, Walmsley etc all definitely have the potential but are nowhere near ready for the England squad just yet imo and would rather see them develop more before throwing them in.

I think (Roby aside), the other Saints players who could be ready would be Lomax (would rate him a far better prospect at 1 than Hardaker), Makinson (although dont think he is quite ready to dislodge Hall, Charnley or Briscoe just yet), Amor and LMS again (if he performs like he did back end of last year). Judging on the current plight of centres, I would also add Turner to that list as whilst he struggles defensively, he is no worse than Watkins is (who has been a big disappointment in the World Cup for me) and a lack of quality competition at centre could see him given chance if he has a good enough season (a la Cudjoe this year)

I was just checking some super league stats (I know they can be misleading) .
Percival in only 72 carries made 13 clean breaks - so nearly 1 in every 5 times he touched the ball , which looks totally off the scale . The next best I could see was Charnley with 35 from 383 or roughly 1 in 11.
If he can keep up that sort of attacking flair and strengthen up , surely he is nailed on for international honours - let's face it , he hasn't got much to beat at centre.

I'm still concerned about his size and it's fit in the centres. I can't imagine what Francis Meli and Junior Sa'u would do to him if he was defending in the centre. It'll be interesting to see if he's grown any by the start of next season. He could do with eating his tea at Sia's every night.

He kept Ablett quiet on his debut. I know he's not great or a natural centre but he's a hell of a lot bigger and better built.

As impressive as Percival has been I agree that he needs a fair bit more size before he becomes a regular. He doesn't need to be massive, similar to Goulding would be plenty big enough without taking away any of the pace he has. Really excited by his future.

Goulding is just a solid SL centre tho. Is it his size that holds him back internationally etc?

He most certainly did.

No, he's held back by a lack of ability

Exactly.

Goulding is a good wingers centre, but is not a "strike" centre.

I've never overly rated Goulding but I suppose the amount of tries Charnely scores reflects well on Goulding.

Not overly for me, Charnley can be devastating given half a yard to the touchline. If anything, it's probably the other way round.

Put someone like Gardner outside him and we'd see a big difference in assists

Aside from our future internationals, I'd just like to give Robe's a big pat on the back for his performance on Saturday.
I'm still gutted we lost, but he really turned up and showed what a great hooker he is.

Who's number 2 to Roby next season?
Howarth is back at Salford I'm pretty sure.

Wilkin, Flanghan and Hohaia I imagine?

Hohaia and then Matty Fozzard in the Academy.

Has Speakman been released or dual reg / loaned out?

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Has Speakman been released or dual reg / loaned out?'" Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"Has Speakman been released or dual reg / loaned out?'" Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...

Quote ="Magic Superbeetle"Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...'" I'm really surprised that Saints didn't have a look at Liam Carberry when he was released from Wigan. A St.Helens lad who just got a bad injury at the wrong time of his career. He's now back in full training and has been picked up by Widnes.

Quote ="Magic Superbeetle"Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...'" I'm really surprised that Saints didn't have a look at Liam Carberry when he was released from Wigan. A St.Helens lad who just got a bad injury at the wrong time of his career. He's now back in full training and has been picked up by Widnes.

Hohiah will run at 6 so i guess Flanagan must be seen as back up. Matty Fozard wont make it, not good enough for SL, Tackles very well but too slow and his distrabution isent the best. Lewis Fairhurst as been playing hooker and we have Aaron Smith who are both younger than matty, so maybe they'll be ready in a few years.

Quote ="Magic Superbeetle"Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...'" Saints offered him a new contract but he wanted to play more regular. He will be playing at either half back or hooker every week at Barrow so you can't blame him for going.

Quote ="Magic Superbeetle"Signed for barrow - was announced a few weeks ago www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1096687 Seems a strange one I admit! Or rather I was surprised we let him go ...'" Saints offered him a new contract but he wanted to play more regular. He will be playing at either half back or hooker every week at Barrow so you can't blame him for going.