Quote ="Saddened!"His internationalism comes from him being Australian But my view still stands. Webb > Wellens - By an enormous distance. A modern fullback has to do more than be reliable under bombs. Wello is the reason our wingers are so poor, they are under far more pressure in attack and defense than they should be. Hall > Gardner - Again, by a staggering distance. Senior - Gidley - Both old and slightly past it Delaney > - We don't have more than one centre in the squad. Wheeler, a junior stand off is playing there at the moment but it's a weakness both in attack and defense. I'd rather Dean played there, a junior second rower. Smith > Smeli - Again, by some distance.'" www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/5800 ... St_Helens/ Give him abreak everyone

Quote ="Saddened!"His internationalism comes from him being Australian But my view still stands. Webb > Wellens - By an enormous distance. A modern fullback has to do more than be reliable under bombs. Wello is the reason our wingers are so poor, they are under far more pressure in attack and defense than they should be. Hall > Gardner - Again, by a staggering distance. Senior - Gidley - Both old and slightly past it Delaney > - We don't have more than one centre in the squad. Wheeler, a junior stand off is playing there at the moment but it's a weakness both in attack and defense. I'd rather Dean played there, a junior second rower. Smith > Smeli - Again, by some distance.'" www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/5800 ... St_Helens/ Give him abreak everyone

Greg Inglis is an "incredible" player.
Billy Slater is an "incredible" player.
Jarryd Hayne is an "incredible" player.

Webb, Smith, Delaney, Senior, Hall, McGuire & Rob Burrow are NOT "incredible" players.

They range from competent to good. No more. No less.

So our reigning champions of the last three years are only competent to good. No wonder we are dross at international level.

No it just means that they were better than Saints competent to poor backline.
Q.E.D.

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. And when it comes to the internationals, the Leeds pudding (and downwards) has repeatedly left us with a bad case of Montezuma's revenge.

75-0.

Again you don't read "In the last three years, I believe he said"

Only two of Saints backline that appeared in last years Grand Final played in the 75 - 0 game.

And when he comes back you can add Donald to that list, as well as Watkins and Jones-Bishop. I'd assume Smith has been earmarked to replace Senior next year ?

I'd agree with some comments around the word 'incredible' but it is an impressive backline with some depth from some very promising young players

How many consecutive victories over Wigan did Saints stack up?

Nice one

And how many times did they manage to beat us when it actually meant something to Saints rather than chilling out before the playoffs?

Weren't we comparing the Leeds and Saints backlines or have you lost that one?

Don't you just love the build up to the derby games.

Full of trivial rubbish

Indeed.

Now, what did the Pope say?

Who the f'kin hell are Slipknot?

Them fookin irish are at it again ?

I think its fair to say that a lot of the saints posters would use a 3/4 line of Sullivan/Newlove/Iro/Hoppe as a yard stick for the term [iincredible[/i. Just as you would use something like robinson/connolly/tuigamala/offiah.

There's no comparing to set ups like that, but in the days of a SC, you're not going to be able to.

I don't see why not. Now that the salary cap and associated legislature has had a chance to work (much to the disgruntlement of C&W doomsayers) we're seeing a flood of great young talent coming through the ranks. We've not had this many good kids entering the competition in over 25 years. The days of a handful of stars holding the league to ransom are gone.

A serious question, for a change.

Who do you see as "this flood of great young talent"? I agree it's better than it's been for a while, but I see it more as a trickle than a flood.

A bloody long while

I don't think it's at flood levels quite yet, but all teams now have kids coming through that they will throw into the first team when needed, that wasn't the case even 3-4 years ago. Maybe it's more a medium flowing river rather than a trickle though



Is this due to the cap or the quota rules? Probably a combination of the two, the cap started it, not allowing teams to completely fill their squads with overpaid Antipodeans, the quota change has speeded it up and will continue to do so while the overseas spots keep shrinking.

BL I was trying to put names to the claim.

I think we're still struggling at positions 1 to 5 in meaningful quality and quantity.

I like the look of Josh Charnley at Wigan as a winger, , Rhys Evans at Warrington and Lee Gaskell at Saints but they've quite a way to go.

Michael Lawrence and Jamie Foster haven't progressed quite as well as I had hoped, but there's still time. Liam Farrell could do big things and Lee Mossop will do.

If Wheeler continues to progress as he has done he should have a very good chance of being picked for England at the end of the year at centre. Lomax is another who may get a shot in the next few years.