I don't know, he wasn't exactly outshone by his legendary opposite number on saturday.

In case you missed it he was playing number 6 in an international just yesterday.

HTH.

Now you may not think he is very good and you are entitled to your opinion but like it or not he IS an international number 6. FWIW he had a hand or a boot in three tries as well despite it not being his best display.

Your first post was about Hall showing consitency. Stop shifting the goal posts. Were you saying Hall is inconsistent?

Nope. Just that he didn't perform well at international level. On Saturday he did. He actually looked like a winger worthy of his place in an international side, as opposed to, well, Ryan Hall.

I thought you were usually quite specific with those claims and IIRC they usually, if not always, included the word English. I'm sure if I'm wrong you'll provide the links.

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No-one can really dispute the quality of those finishes (although anyone fortunate enough to witness Alan Smith may be left wondering what all the fuss is about) but I'd question Boyd's choice of tackling technique for the second.

Really? It wasn't the most committed effort, but having seen what happened to the last guy, could you blame him?

On the subject of Sinfield, a couple of missed kicks aside I thought he was very good indeed on Saturday. Played 3 positions over the course of the match, involved in 3 tries and I thought while he was at 6 and Chase at 7 the halfback combination actually worked. Sinfield gave Chase a steady base to work around. After Sinfield moved to the pack I thought the structure went and Chase started to look like a headless chicken.

If Widdop is to come into the team I think it has to be at 4 as he didn't look like he had the game management of Sinfield or the spark of Chase while he was on.

People suggesting moving Tomkins to 6 (not on this thread) need their eyes testing after his display at full back. It reminds me of the "Hall to centre" stuff, where RL fans inexplicably say "wow, he was awesome today, let's immediately move him to a different position. After all, if it ain't broke, why not meddle with it anyway."

Yes really. A proper full-back would have had Hall over the touchline yards short of the line (or having to be bumped off after a legitimate attempt round the legs at least.)

Surprised at Boyd as it's his regular position in the NRL at St George with them having the excellent Morris and Nightingale on the flanks.

I disagree to be fair - it was an awesome finish. Hall gave enough of a hand off to Boyd to buy those precious few extra yards. Boyd didn't want to commit to a waist/leg tackle as Hall would most likely have been able to offload to the supporting Reed. 2 world class tries against world class defence.

I wasn't being entirely serious...

If I were being entirely serious, I see what you're saying, but I sometimes think being hyper critical of defence dulls the enjoyment of good attacking play. Hall's fend to keep Boyd at arms length, together with his power making him a generally difficult animal to stop, was crucial, as was the slight delay Reed put in delivering the final ball.

Probably with perfect defence nobody would ever score, but I thought that was a well-worked try and Boyd had a lot to do to get across to Hall and stop him. It was desperation stuff, and desperation doesn't always yield textbook technique.

Fair enough but the attempted leg tackle (resulting in the winger being taken into touch) would have forced the issue short of the line with a high probability that any offload would have been uncontrolled and highly likely being propelled forward in that situation.

It's the mark of a good player to create doubt in the minds of normally reliable tacklers. Tomkins does it and it was great to see Hall do it with such ease too.