Houghton-(had a lot to work with tbf.

TALANOA - BEAST. KILLED IT. On all plays

Manu. A mean orrible leader. Tough but with skill - see assist!

Houghton
Bowden
Manu

Houghton
Manu
Tank/Bowden

Credit to Houghton for pulling Frank back from the ref lol. Gave me a real laugh!

It was Shaul, but yes it was funny!

Houghton
Talanoa
Bowden

My bad, thought it was houghton.

hard to decide this one tonight

1. taylor
2. houghton
3. talanoa

pryce and pritchard just outside the 3

Thought pryce was quiet for the most part tonight

Houghton
Sika
Bowden


Closely followed by shaul who I thought was fantastic, his try had shades of Tompkins.
Also Taylor who ran through everything no matter how hard he was hit, he just trampled over them.
Carlos, hands and step in centre pos we havnt had for some time.

Special mention for Thompson, who has stepped up his game and has fantastic footwork at the line

Looking very promising

Houghton
Taylor
Bowden

Houghton -fantastic running .
Shaul - scared them to death every time on ball
Thompson - tireless display . great foot work

Very difficult to narrow it down to three but here's mine:

Houghton.
Bowden.
Shaul.

1. Houghton - machine last night, got through a lot of work and created a few tries with his running from dummy half.

2. Pritchard - bit quiet towards the end after he picked up a knock, but I thought he was superb. He makes metres every time, usually with 2 or 3 players hanging off the back of him.

3. Sneyd - was good to see him bossing the game. Thought him and Pryce compared to Lui and Dobson were on another level.

Special mention to Thompson. Took his try well, but I thought he performed admirably against Carney in what looked like difficult circumstances. Players and coaching staff kept him away from Carney at the end, otherwise I think he'd have lamped him.

Also, Bowden and Green was great and its nice to not lose any impact when our starting props went off.

1. Thompson - filled the hole left by Westerman (Westerwho?) and provided great interplay with the halfs. Unsung hero imo
2. Houghton - great dummy half runs, quick play the balls, a real handfull
3. Bowden - Ive been one of his biggest critics but he was great last night and was the pick of the front rowers who all did well

Houghton
Taylor
Manu

How manu isnt in everyones top 3 amazes me.

Manu
Houghton
Bowden

Houghton
Bowden
Manu

The Talanoa love-in is interesting. Suppose it depends on what you want from your wingers. Good hard yards in the middle and always wins the play the ball but I want my wingers to shine on the wing!

Houghton
Manu
Frank

I dont see it as a love in. I see it as massively obvious. 1 on 1 he'll score 9 out of 10 times. Makes massive metres. Each of his seasons he's been near top of fast play of the ball stats. That's massive for your team. Never man handled. Also wins more pens than nearly any player in the league. He was for a first run out pretty outstanding! Wingers roles have changed a lot in recent years. Being fast doesn't cut it

Houghton
Bowden
Thompson

That's a ridiculous statement. I played wing and fb and the main area you are taught is to beat the 1st man, make meters out of your own end while helping the forwards out, and fight tooth and nail to get a quick ptb. In doing that theird every chance to gain a penalty. Talanoa is magnificent at this, if you want a winger to shine on the wing, you will find what the wiger does at the beginning of a set can have massive influence a few plays later, that's when the playmakers take control after the meteres made and winger usually then finish. Don't underestimate the dirty work wingers have to do, their more to it then scoring a try

1. Houghton
2. Manu
3. Talanoa

100% agree and Talanoa is up there with the best in the league for getting a side on a roll from a kick return he created our first try by getting through the line winning a quick PTB and Houghton took off into the gap caused by Talanoas urgency.

Like I said - it depends what [iyou[/i want from your wingers. I stated in my post the same attributes that replies have referred to, I get all that but the big negative for me is that a winger should have genuine pace. Yes the game has changed, wingers offer far more in the middle, Briscoe being a superb example of that but Briscoe can also go 100 metres.

How many trys has he scored from more than 20 metres out?

A winger with real pace would get us 20 trys outside Carlos this year. Lets see how it pans out.

The very fastest of wingers will score 4/5 lengthens in a season. Will be asked to finish off from 10/20 metres 10/20 maybe 30 times. Depending on opportunity. Those few where outright pace is needed is outnumbered by the need to be able to finish in a tight spot. To ride out heavy challenges etc. Also weighed against the returns fast ball plays etc etc which can be needed 10/15 times a game then it doesn't justify trading it all in on the speculation that we might score a long ranger

How often is a winger called upon to go 100 metres though. For me a winger in attaxk should be able to finish everything from within 10 metres, offer a bit of an aerial threat, and carry the ball strongly out of defence. Speed is a nice to have, but there have been lots of wingers with blinding speed who have been useless. For me Talanoa is in the top 10 wingers in the league on a bad day.

And he's got one try so he's already ahead of schedule for those 20 try's.