Considering he only signed for us on thursday and therefore will be unfamiliar with Saints moves and play, i thought he distributed the ball very well.

Weakness is that he isnt really a dynamic runner around the ruck.

However i have noticed this year that Nathan Brown has been trying to move us away from being a team that is reliant on getting trys through breaks on the back of dummy half scoots, in favour of a more balanced attack.

I say this as having watched Roby this year its noticeable that instead or running relentlessly from dummy half, he has been merely stepping out, making a yard or two forward then passing.

This change of style should give us more options and make us harder to shut down.
It wont be merely a case of stop Roby running and you stop Saints.

I also think that by utilising the halves and fullback more in the attack that will move our game away from the midfield area to the more traditional Saints wide play that we as fans like to see.

His distribution was fine, long passes out wide putting pressure on a sliding defence. He was different from Roby maybe people are judging him on Roby,s style of play.
It was noticable as Chairmaker mentioned, Howarth was moving the ball away from the midfield area giving a little bit more space out wide resulting in a faster offensive play.

It was slow, Its as if has to double pump every time he trys to pass. As I said I aint slagging him he Is what he Is.
Dissapointed he hasnt put Speakman In on Monday,now he has got a crisp pass.

Agreed.

He did well and passing was accurate with width.

It was noticeable on kick plays service was slow and Wilkin had two or three players in his face as soon as he got the ball.

Mind you it is upto Wilkin and others to do some thing different. Drop deeper , vary the kickers position etc.

In some senses he looked a little out of place passing into the bread basket rather than
the typical behind the runner , round the ankles / head of many of his team mates.

Howarth isn't injured though. You won't get Saints actively phasing in a young player. They will only play when there are injuries.

I honestly don't know where you have got this idea from!

Of course it was. His longer passes were accurate and crisp but his general speed off the floor was too slow

I think people are just confusing each other here.

He took a while to get the ball of the floor but when put the pass out it was very accurate and had some real pace on it.

Exactly, his speed af pass was excellent, the long distance and accuracy of pass was something we have not seen consistently this year. If he does the same tomorrow our outside backs will have more time and space on a lesser effecient sliding defence.

I don't see why? It's not a difficult concept.

If you want to see a slow distribution you should just watch Hohaia from dummy half.

I know what you mean, sometimes it reminds me of the re inactment of the "Green Cross Code"

Would his lack of training with the team not affect that though? As in he doesn't know the moves so has had to look where the players are running rather than going off instinct?

On a more general point in this discussion, haven't we only signed him as cover until the end of the season?

The deal is a straight loan swap. He will go back to Salford at the end of the season. Gaskell is OOC so will use the time to showcase his talents. I see Gaskell had a good game at , a position I and others have said he should have been tried at while at Saints.

To put Gaskell at Centre at Saints would require pushing Jones out into the 2nd row.

With Percival also showing good performances, it could give a back line of

Lomax, Makinson Gaskell Percival Turner.

Lots of speed there, but not a huge amount of power.

Hard to see Gaskell ever making it back to Saints now.

www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/2880 "I'm on a season long loan deal but for the time being I want to just improve on that performance. I would then like to push for a full time deal as Saints are one of the best rugby league clubs in the world"

www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/2880 "I'm on a season long loan deal but for the time being I want to just improve on that performance. I would then like to push for a full time deal as Saints are one of the best rugby league clubs in the world"

Hope he has good game this afternon, I can see Brown looking at him for scrum half duties when Roby returns.
I think he started off as a half back with Tomkins, got a broken leg and went through a similar scenario as Gaskell.
In the Good friday game, i could see creativity and vision in his game, also as everyone has noted he has a great passing game, hope it works out for player and club.

I think he's done ok in his two games. He gives 100%

I liked his on field fibs today. I saw him do it twice and the Cas players fell for it.

I actually quite like him, i like what he's said about the club so far and i like the passion he shows when celebrating when our players score. I honestly think he is doing better than the "okay" tag he seems to have gained on here.

I don't think he is the best of players but he's doing a job for us and gives his all.

I like his variety of passing, he looks fully aware of the defence moving up at the play the ball and gives the ball width. Follows up well on the kick and chase, seemed to work some combinations with LMS and Perry today.
Thought he has fitted in well over the weekend games, certainly looks a better option than having Lance at 9.

Noticed in the warm up that he was talking to Cunningham for a good couple of minutes about something, moving his hands like he was passing a ball. He was also talking to LMS and Flanagan a lot after we'd scored a try. Wonder whether he's still asking about plays etc?

I think he did a good job again today. Has a good distribution and gets us moving around the field. He's a 100x better than Hohaia in that position, although that's not hard!

How old is he? 22? If he was in the team coming from the academy I think people would be a lot more positive about him. People seem to have listened to the Salford fans a little too much.

I'm not saying that we should get rid of Roby, but it's clear that we shouldn't be playing him 80mins every week. If Howarth continues to do a job over the next few weeks I think he could be a valuable squad player.

I agree Albion if he didn't have all the stuff said about him and people didn't pre judge him then everyone would be a lot more positive now but it's almost like they are too scared to go against what they first thought so he is just doing "okay" rather than admitting he is doing good.

Seems to be doing better than most people expected! Good on the lad

you can only judge people on what you see and what you read really and I admit I wasnt too pleased when we signed him as from what I'd seen of him personally and read from others he looked like a plodder destined for a championship club career. I have after 2 games revised my opinion though , he looks like he has some potential. Time will tell I guess