...was common.

If you ask me, Wello has worked very hard over the past 18 months to get his attacking game back on track and he's suceeded.The way he loiters around the play of the ball to pick up short passes and offloads has been excellent and we've really benifitted from it going forward.
Unfortunatley, attacking this area constantly leaves us with a somewhat limited game and in closer forward battles its harder to make work.
Wello is far from all defence - no attack, but when we ask him to come into the line in that outer pivot role, which is so effective for many #1s in SL to stretch the defences, he lacks fluidity and danger. Opposition backs seem to be able to defend against him better than other's in his position.

Don't forget on kick returns as well. The prime reason Wellens was better than potato head over in Wigland is that you could pretty much guarantee he would beat the first man and make 10m-15m on a lot of kick returns. He hasn't done that on a regular basis for about three seasons now. Being able to return to the ball well is like having an extra tackle in your set of six and can often make the difference between our field kicks landing near the opposition goal line or 35m out. Nobody I know, who is critical, has a bad word to say about the man's character, integrity, commitment, determination or desire. Perhaps we need Stuart Pearce to cut through the sentimentality.

Nathan Brown doesn't strike me as the sentimental type.

But I'd say he's been returning better this year than last.........

He's also returning kicks better this year than he was when he was thirteen years old too.

Maybe. He was only little back then though.

My point is, although he may not be MOS material anymore, he's certainly playing well in himself and certainly contributing in attack. I also think he's more solid under kicks than he was last year.

However, by selecting a player at #1 with different attcking attributes, such as the ability to linkinto the line effectively and at pace, we could add an awful lot to our attacking nal.

I'm not sure whether that will be Makinson, Swift or Ashe(not heard much about him this year) that's next in line, or indeed whether we would shift Hohaia to play Gaskell at #6. Maybe we'll sign someone completely new, but I doubt it. If Wello get another year, I reckon(hope) it would be on reduced rate in order to have him as cover and bring the young lads on.

Wello can certainly do a job for us, I mean I'd consider giving him a run at centre because he has the strength and the hands to do a job there for us. Perhaps, not as an everyday centre but he's more than capable of filling in wherever needed.

I've been saying that for a while - not sure what we'd lose playing him there over Shenton.

Shenton's come up with some big money plays in the last few weeks (since he announced he was leaving, in fact) which have resulted in some nice tries from deep. Not sure if Wello could have mustered that.

How long can Wellens keep going? I think his defence is starting dip now, but for me he never was a greyhound, but short range attack has never been better. His presence on the pitch is a massive leg-up for the Saints, even more so now that his mate KC is now in the stand with MR. So for me he still is a potent strike force in attack and his enthusiasm and heart is self-evident, it’s just his speed in defence where he is starting to struggle IMO. How many more years? Hard to say, but the tipping-point can’t be too far away





Rock 'n' Roll.

Thats what I said......

Less than ten minutes in to the semi:

Would Wello have dropped the high kick? And i don't just mean drop the kick....I perhaps mean at least be within arms length to reach the ball without having to back pedal....side pedal.....

Would Wello have allowed that ball to run into touch for the forty twenty? Especially as Sinfield was well within the forty....and as the Wigan left centre clearly signalled as Sinfield was kicking that it needed fielding.

The one thing Tomkins has learnt from Wello is to stand and complain to the referree when he doesn't agree with something (forward pass).....although Paul usually waits until after the try has been scored rather than just standing and leaving a whole in the defensive line to allow the try......

Usually. Except last season when he was so busy arguing with the ref he let Pat Richards sneak behind him to score!

Good to see darling Tomkins still makes schoolboy errors: namely, the one Makinson was so actively criticised for not so long ago on here.

So you'd have Wellens over Tomkins then?

NO! But boy was it funny.

I thought Hardaker looked extremely good at fullback. He outshone Samkins today IMO, and he has hardly any experience at that level.

1 game and Ratkins was still the most dangerous pie eater in attack. He looks like creating something everytime he has the ball in hand even if his defence was iffy today. If you took Ratkins out of that team today Leeds would have cruised the win

I wasn't that impressed by him tbh. He was their most dangerous player, yes, but only because nobody else was at home and Leuluai wasn't on the field. Hardaker still outshone him IMO.

The run he did in the 1st half from dummy half was absolutely sensational.

Aye. For a minute I thought I was going to see a try as good as Hanley's for Bradford against Featherstone. I don't often bemoan the fact when a pie gets tackled but I almost wanted him to go the length of the field that one time just so we could see an ace try.

Hard to disagree with that.

Tomkins makes Wigan very difficult to number up against in defence, because he moves across the back of the attacking line so quickly. Even when he is not making breaks himself he is making room for people like Carmont.

That's probably the reason so many gaps appear about three channels in for the 2nd rowers, because the defence are too eager to get out to number up on Stomkins.

Tough call, I don;t think Wellens would have Mr Wane as his adopted dad, even for a short spell like a weekend for instance.