Rumours he maybe coming to Salford, Is he any good? And is there any truth in it????

I rate him personally, works hard when he plays and would be disappointed if we let him go. Think there could be a chance that he will be leaving though as next season will have Soliola, Wilkin, Flannery, Flanagan, Dixon and hopefully Scott Moore all in front of him in pecking order for back row so might find first team opportunities limited, would like to see him loaned out for a year but keep him long term

He's steady and that's about it really.

Is He Any relation To Bill Ashurst

Could be truth in it. He's 'solid' but unspectacular so far. He's looked more lively recently but has never made an impact with the ball, but has always looked strong defensively.

It's a strange one, when he has struggled for game time he has looked decent. But earlier in the year when we had some 2nd row places up for grabs and regular appearances for our academy 2nd rowers, the ease of getting a spot seamed to reduce the performance level.

I'm not making this up either, I think Ashurst put a piece on the Saints website saying how he needed to up his game.

So a pitty if he does not make it at Saints but on current form, not a huge loss.

But if both him and Moore leave as is being rumoured it puts us into a position where we've got far too few first team players again.

Matty if you want a lift i'll drop you off free of charge

Its a fine balance between quality or quantity I guess. Does Ashurst offer more to the team than someone like Hale, who we can presume will get more chances next year? Is it worth keeping someone who we know isnt good enough, at the expense of someone who may develop into a top player?

No it's not. But there is also the balance of depth. Teams like Wigan, Wire and the Giants have more first team players than we do. In this situation they would sign Ashurst up for another two years and put him out on dual reg if he wasn't going to get into the side.

With Hale getting a new deal I wouldnt be suprised to see him leave. Steady player who may or may not progress over the next few years.

He'll be too old to go on dual reg next season won't he? 21 is the upper limit and he's the same cohort as Foster and so I would imagine will be 21 before next season.

Why should we stick with Ashurst (or indeed any of the young players) if they are not shining brightly?* We have plenty more young players of talent coming through the ranks. If the coaches feel that the club has given Ashurst enough time to show his ability, and he hasn't shown enough of it, then I'd say it was good sense to let him go and give another young player time to prove HIS worth. That way we will be more likely to end up with the best players on the pitch.

We will have a good balance in the squad next season: some elderly chaps and some kids. That's the balance we need to retain.



*I'm not saying Ashurst isn't shining brightly, just that we shouldn't be sticking with a young player just for the sake of his experience.

As i said a good while back when people was bigging him up to be another gonna be superstar that he just ain't good enough.

Hes a typical saints young forward that we bring thru, he's ok in defence but offers nothing with the ball.

He may not be a worldbeater, but at 21 its too young IMO to make a proper judgement re a forward.
I think you need to give promising fringe players till they are 23 to see if they are likely to make that extra step up.

Certainly we appear to have let Emmitt and Paul Johnson go in error. Both have done sterling jobs in the sides they are currently in.

Joel Tomkins at Wigan is an example of a player who only really started to blossom when he was around 21 years old.

Joel Tomkins is rubbish. He wouldn't be at Wigan if his rat brother wasn't.

But I agree on Ashurst. He's not amazing at the moment but we badly need depth.

Reasonable post from SaintsFan, I think if you look at players in the past that have not set the first team on fire in their first 40 games they have been sent out on lone to get some game time and then be reassessed. I think this is what Matty and Andrew Dixon need.

They have both suffered this year due to a lack of game time. I would much rather they get 20+ games next year for Salford/Wakefield/Quins/Widnes and have guys like Scott Hale and Carl Forster as the 18th man next year. Shaun Maggenis on the other hand I am pretty sure he will play most of the time next year so he does not need to go out on loan.

A year or two away building up experience did Scott Moore a lot of good and I am sure it is what these two boys need.

'Joel Tomkins is rubbish'

Yet another bad opinion of yours mate

You could always request a ban through your embassy at uncle joes???

We can't afford to keep all of our promising young forwards up to the age of 23, so we have to keep the most promising and let the less promising go. Tomkins had flaws in his game at 21, and still does, but was always going to be in a different league to Ashurst/Dixon.

Regarding Emmit and Johnson, we should take the fact that young players we've released are doing a decent job in SL as an indication of how improved our youth setup is. We can't keep all of them.

I said from day one, we should have kept emmit.

Ashurst - Needs work, but will be a good(ish) player imo.
Has a good athletic frame that will lend its self to adding wood.

I thought he looked really good at the end of last season before he picked up an injury. He hasn't maganed to regain that form, but I think he's got a bit in him.

He looks to be an intelligent player to me, runs good lines, positions himself well, he just doesn't have the bulk to make half breaks full breaks. If/when he adds that he'll be a good player with the added experience.

Someone mentioned Forster at 18th man. He seems to be very affective for the underwhatevers since his return from injury, I'm suprised we haven't sen him yet, especially given how we've suffered at prop.

We should have kept Johnson, not Emmit.

The reality is that IF Perry had of been fit Emmit would of got very little game time and an international front rower is allways going to get in ahead of a youngster.