Can anybody explain to me what has happened with Lomax? Under Royce he flourished at HB, yet now he's a shadow of his former self.

He seems to have lost all his confidence and rarely finds the right ball choice: 80% of the time he hits the lead runner, 15% of the time he dummys and unsuccessfully takes on the line and the other 5% is an inaccurate pass to Gaskell.

Tonight was better, but it's still far from good enough. I thought it was lack of decent coaching last season, but he seems (a few games in I know) to be the same player of last season.

It's a MASSIVE problem for me.

Never a half back in a million years.

Probably a variety of reasons. Over-hyped , played out of position, confidence ???

However the fact that bar sawing his own leg off , he will get a starting jersey doesn't help matters.

Frankly if player doesn't have a passing , kicking or organisational game then why are they persevered with at Scrum Half boggles the mind.

Lomax and Gaskell lost us any hope of winning that game tonight with there performances. Probably the two poorest half backs currently in our competition. They was both dread full tonight. LMS and Tony Puletua could of both done the exact same job as them two.

I do feel Lomax would of been a great full back for Saints, however Wellens as seen to that never happening.

I think you answered your own question.

He isn't playing as a half back, so I don't know why people keep having a go at our 'half backs'.

Wilkin is our first reciever most of the time, and he distributes to forwards 9 times out of ten. Lomax and Gaskell have clearly been told to work out wide from the forwards work, ala Canterbury. It clicked at times during he first half, but went to pieces under pressurr in the second.

he has been found out

Both Lomax and Gaskell look shadows of themselves in 2011. We're in desperate need of a proper half back!

If we ever get the chance to experiment in team position, I would have Lomax playing at full back, Gaskell at scrum half, Swift at Stand Off and Wellens at Loose Forward.
I reckon by the end of the season Brown will have determined who is the next full back for 2014.
In the meantime, looks like another transitional year struggling to make the top 4.

He's not a scrum-half, simple as.

Not a scrumhalf - never has been, never will be. He could still be effective at #7 with the right #6 alongside him but that's not (and may never be) Gaskell just yet. I still really like the idea of him at #4 with Wheeler in the halves instead if he can ever sort himself out...

Or maybe in desparate need of a coach who can and will coach our halfbacks in the manner Simmons clearly did?

is nathan brown playing him on the wing yet?

Lomax has played on the wing, and pretty good he is there too.

Yet another who has flattered to deceive.

It is a sad state of affairs when only two players from the ranks over the past ten years (Graham and Roby) have actually made the grade. Clough ceased to improve in his early 20s and is now just a steady bench player.

Sad to say it but the Saints are destined to mediocrity for the next few years.

I thought we had worse players out there on the park than lomax.
He certainly wasn't inspirational but he is playing a different game to last year and is playing a more physical game running directly at their forwars a-la a second rower.

The comment about Wilkin taking over the role at present is spot on, but this messing about with roles is clearly not working.

Wilkin isn't a halfback and yet Brown appears to be playing him as one. I think Simmons got the third pivot idea right but he used Wello. While that probably ran its course when everyone worked out Wello's attack (since he doesn't appear able to vary it much!), if we would just play someone of an attacking nature at fullback then using that player as the third pivot with Wilkin more of a roving loose forward might help a bit.

Or maybe not!

I always thought Wilkin was destined to be a ball handling 13, and I thought he had a decent game last night to be honest.

Regarding Lomax, I would love to see him playing as a full back once Wellens retires, with a quality signing at #7.

They were both surprise packages when they first came through in 2011. Lomax's step inside has been found out now and his passing, kicking and orgasing skills aren't good enough to be a 7. We need to sign a new 7 next season and move him away from that role otherwise he will go backwards and we will drop further away.

As for Gaskell, he's a year behind his development as he barely played last year. We'll have to see how he goes this year but he's not started great.

People constantly slagged off Rush for not playing Gaskell last year, yet he was clearly not far off the mark in dropping him, especially as he probably knows him far better than anyone else. He is now on borrowed time before he returns to the reserves or sees out his career at Rochdale. Lomax may find himself a new position, but until we have a replacement half back, he is destined to stagnate in a pisiform he isn't cut out for.

I was constantly shouted down on here for saying that Gaskell isn't good enough at stand off but he simply isn't. Bottom line is that he would be a far better or Loose forward ( provided he could bulk up ).

He's had 3 games at Stand off and is not good enough???

Lance had a whole season and was not good enough, if he is still not good enough after 10 games then I will conceed the point, but at this stage I'm not prepared to do another Smith or Foster and suggest he be excommunicated from the team again after less than a handful of games, only to do better elsewhere.

We have no patience at all as Saints fans and if it's not instant then it's not good enough.

It took him a good 5-8 games in 2011 to get up to speed, he's had little game time since.

I'm now wondering how long it will be for the Saints faithful to suggest that Roby is not of the Saints standard and he should be shipped out too.

Didn't Royce say he had to sit Lomax down at his home and explain to him how to play half back?

And now look how he is playing; should have left him alone.

What utter tosh.

It is because stupid Rush dropped Gaskell last year that Gaskell is now having to play catch up. Had Gaskell continued his development from 2011, as he should have been allowed to do, we might now have been looking at a settled, working partnership with the possibility of two halves who were shaping up to control a game, even in a crisis. As it is the lad has to start all over again. Rush deserves to be slagged off. And the most galling thing about it all was that we ended up getting even less out of the season than we did when we had the sacked coach in place and a whole bunch of young players playing, not just Gaskell and Lomax. So he was just wrong on every front.

We have played all of three matches and it's just ridiculous to be writing off our halfbacks.