i couldnt agree with you more on that one, to be a centre you have got to be there for your winger in attack and thats just not the case wih atkins you may as well put a second rower outside him as he aint gonna get the ball in attack, he reminds me of adrian flynn but i have to be honest and say that he is much better than flynn was but a very similar player all the same, i think the wing is the way forward for atkins.

i think the reason you see shenton drop off the odd tackle in the last 20 is because most teams run plenty down his side in the first 60 to take some petrol out of the tank, it doesnt take teams long to work out that hes pretty much our biggest thret in attack.

Kallum Watkins will get pretty close to Inglis/Falou. The lad has only just turned 18 and he has everything apart from experience at the min. He's got Speed, Strengh and ball handling skils. All that is wrong with him at the min is just lack of sense at times. Often caught out of position and just makes silly errors. This will clear up once he get a few years experience.

Im sorry but I just cant see this, falou and Inglis have been playing top flight for a few years now and are dominating in their respective posistion. If watkins is good enough then why isnt he playing, IIRC you had lee smith in the centre last week and hes going at the end of the year, so if watkins is lacking expierence then why arent leeds offering them it.

At this moment in time watkins hasnt proved he has anything bar pace at SL level. I also dont think he has the size (maybe this will come with time) but folau and inglis are monsters.

It took a lot of restraint to not put a few laughing emoticons.

Think Atkins suffers from "big fish small pond" mentality, as it is too easy to be the big star at Wakey. He would have to work harder at Leeds or Saints, because can you imagine him getting away with creating no tries for Donald or Gardner.

I prefer Gleeson. Not sure he has the same potential, but you are guaranteed honest endeavour. We have been waiting for Ryan to come good for a few years now.

Gleeson also has a step that Atkins doesn't appear to have.

I’ve been saying for months that Atkins is not a centre his passing game lets him down but that been said I feel he would be wasted on the wing.

Put him in the second row running wide against the backs then when we play it to the back he needs to realise he has not got what it takes as far as passing ability which was identified in his game for England when he passed to set up one of the try’s he just doesn’t look comfortable passing.

He can then run behind the backs forming a second line of attack adding much needed depth to our attacking play and options when the initial attack breaks down giving the opposition another thing to think about.

Forget any rugby attributes, what's stopping him is his attitude. I have said for ages he is lazy in his attack and defence, senior made him luck a total dummy. He made little effect in attack and his defence was appalling.
For all you involved in the "atkins love in" you must at least be pleased that leeds won't touch him after that performance, if that's the standard of the next generation, senior's got a good few years left in him.

He certianly was not as bad as people are making it appear, he had a decent game apart from 2 times when Senior showed his class and experience! Other than that he did very well to handle Ali, Senior and Hall. They normaly rip teams apart down that side. And let's not forget he has not played right centre for well over 2 years.

He still has a lot to learn no one is saying he don't but he will learn from playing against Senior, in fact after the game Keith was giving him some tops. Which some people on here say is "ridiclious" that he was talking to Keith after the game



Awaits the usual............

I can see what you are trying to say. Up until the last couple of minutes my view of his game would have been largely positive, his effort was sound and he had his moments in attack that i'm sure others wouldn't have managed. But he was shown up in the end - these are areas of his game that he needs to work on, in and in one sense it did cost us the game.

Atkins is fast turning into a media player , Eddie says hes good so he must be . Never rated Ryan at all although he did the job when he first came ego has taken preference to performance. He even has a crusade on this site that would probably back him if he was arrested for molesting daddy cool . My stance has not changed in over 12 months and as i said back then he should either put up or shut up i think the time is neigh to shut up .

we have many bodies in the 18s that would give a organ to play for Wakefield , im afraid that Atkins seems to be in a world of regret for not going a short while ago when Leeds were sniffing.

senior is way past his best but was yet again made to look world class.

Great Britain / England



ALL I WANT IS 100%

Senior past his best?



If you listen to him and people at Leeds they think he is just as good as ever

Agree, although if you look at Burrow try in 2nd half it was very poor defending from Snitch (who was great most of the night) Gleeson and Stosic. Somone should have smashed Diskin but failed to do so.

Please never blame 1 man for a defeat, even if it is hard to take, there are 17 out there. there were others that could have made a tackle and didnt. Atkins did make a couple of mistakes but you cant blame him for the loss.

He is certainly not as good as he was and nobody would expect him to be at his age. Imagine what Senior in his prime would have done to Atkins. The problem that Atkins has is that he courts the media he comes across as flashy and up himself which is all well and good if you are producing the goods which Ryan isn't. If he just got his head down and concentrated on his game then he would not only improve but would also get more respect from the fans.

yes way past his best

, do you remember him at sheffield going to leeds?

most people acknowledge the fact hes past his very best as folk do with drew he was up against the player who supposedly deserves his england shirt senior will still be centre at 40 if so

No he would not have to work harder at Saints. I have seen many good club players go to top sides and improve due to the players around them. The backs in either code always get it easier not harder if they are on the front foot, as do half backs. I think if Atkins was in the Saints team he would be a far more potent player than he is with us, and thats due to the players around him would be of a far higher quality.

I agree you cant blame one man for a defeat but when you analyse a match report it usually comes down to the key incidents in which Atkins was heavily involved... I agree that the media need to stop bigging him up such as the Stevo, Eddie and especially Phil Clarke !! He got totally outclassed for me and needs to seriously work on his game both in attack and defence and youd have to put Yeaman and Shenton abouve him now in the England pecking order... I suppose its a learning curve - not quite as good as he thought he was and needs to take it on the chin and stand up from now...

Also he would be liable to receive more ball in more potent positions on the pitch. Fall all his misgivings I do thing the nature of the Atkins bashing on this thread is a little OTT. Fair enough he has his deficiencies, don’t we all, and he should’ve done better with Senior’s try in the first half and the break which pretty much destroyed Trinity late in the second but for the rest he put in the effort the same as the rest of the team.

I think the real issue is that Trinity do not know how to use him. He is a powerful player who is difficult to stop close to the line yet how often do we see him in a position to achieve that? Less then once a match over the course of the season? Were he playing for Leeds or Saints you could guarantee that he would be in that position 2 – 3 times per game.

I'm not blaming Atkins for the defeat, but this is an Atkins thread, hence him being discussed.

All you can do is compare him to other centres, and perhaps it is fairest to compare him to JD when he last played regularly in the centres, and JD was making hay. If you came to rugby league for the first time a couple of years ago, ignored all media talk, and just watched the game, I'm not sure you would think he was anything special. When I see the team sheet, he is not one of the players I am bothered about seeing on there. I am looking at the pack, or who is at 6 and 7, or even full back, but I would not regard Atkins as a big deal if he wasn't playing.

To be fair to him, he doesn't get the ball enough, but he is no gamebreaker. Senior is. Gidley is. Shenton is. He does an adequate job for us, but he is supposed to be a potential international, and with an international on his inside, Peterson should be running riot, and he isn't. No try assists. That is not a good stat.

No it isn’t, but then he isn’t a creative centre ala Gidley or Shenton. He is a power centre. We’ve seen enough of him to know that he doesn’t get what little ball he receives out to his wing man. Why is this? Has he been coached to do so yet still doesn’t take it in? Has he been told to keep hold of the ball and try and break the line? My memory is not one of my strong points but was JD a centre who could put his wing away? I don’t think he was. What he did do though is score the tries which made the stat of try assist a moot point.

I don’t think Atkins is the bees knees at all and realise he appears lazy in defence, but maybe he is one of those players that when he goes, sceptics will lament his departure as he gets the chance to score a lot of tries for somebody else.

bye bye from me asap please!

I dont believe he on his own lost us the game but i do think he was owned by Senior on Friday and without the help he got (Sam Obst & Petersen) on the right hand side on Friday it could have been alot worse!

I have always thought that if he wants to play at a higher level (England not Leeds) and depending on what he is like under the high ball, he would make a very good winger.

I do like him and think he is one of our main strike players, but unfortunatley we dont use him enough in attack and im not convinced he goes looking for it enough (apart from the last 2 minutes against Harlequins where he wanted it every tackle on there line)
When he first came did he have Solomona inside him???


He is nowhere near the class of an International centre but on a good day he is definately at the top end of the Super League centres. Only problem is there is a world of difference between the 2.

Yes he did,

Agreed

Don't agree, he is playing some of his best rugby for Leeds that I have seen him play for some time!

People say Atins was outclassed, that was not the case. Only twice did he get caught out. I have seen many centres been caught out many more times edging into double figures.