Hi all, just wondered what peoples thoughts are on Swifty at the moment?

As we know he not been in the squad let alone the team the last few weeks and with the emergence of Grace and with Tommy now back on the wing does he have a place/future in the Team? For me he not been at his best so far this season and has looked at time low on confidence and made some silly mistakes/judgements. He did sign a new contract earlier in the season and yes there will be times we will have injuries etc but I just wonder whether if Holbrook sees him in his future plans or not?

Hot and cold, he can have a great game and score tries and then struggle to get going, but then, the team as a whole have been a bit like that. Grace seems to be stronger and have more pace, if he is out just because he is out of favour due to form then we have to give him time to get it back and give him more time. There is always place for wingers due to injury but with Ben coming in to FB I reckon swifty might end up moving on if Ben works out.

IF Morgan goes back home as rumoured then might end up with Makinson at centre and swift on wing.

Swifty is certainly a good quality winger and any drop in form or injury would see him slot in no problem.

I personally think his career was damaged by Cunningham as have a number of other players. Prior to KC coming on board he was a very exciting prospect. However instead of utilising his pace and agility he was turned into a quasi prop and bulked up.

As much as I respect Swifty for his commitment and effort, he's a terrible player. He has never convinced me as a winger, it seems he was just thrown there as he couldn't get in the team anywhere else. He has no real positives, he can't catch, he can't tackle. He's like Francis Meli without the size and with twice as many errors.

Not good enough for Saints and good to see Holbrook worked him out in about five minutes. I wish him well at Leigh however.

If he is not on a big salary he,s well worth keeping and I hope Holbrook has told him he,s still in the future plans.
We've had far too many seasons when we have had injuries in the back line were we put players out of there natural positions. 3 players for 2 wing positions, 3 players for the half backs and 2 players for the full back position. Surely a good position to be in keeping everyone on there toes and being competitive, Holbrook can also de risk any player with a niggly injury.

As an option if he is not getting any game time then maybe we could loan him out and then bring him back if we get any injuries / loss of form?

Lomax
Mata'utia
Percival
Morgan
Makinson

Regan grace back up winger. Swift and fleming to leave.

Is that after Barba has gone back home??

Swift needs to return soon.

If Swift got dropped for lack of ball control then they should drop half the team after last night.

Regan Grace creeping into an error liability now, we criticised Swift for the occasional error in a game but Regan is becoming worse. No good being the fastest player on the field if you keep losing the ball, 5 errors last night.

I think it was easier to count the players who didn't make any errors last night.

It's to raw at min. He s making Percy play poor now to. He hugs that touchline and won't come inside and Percy knows if he gives him the ball then he's in touch.

Percy in two minds what to do as the fans on his back to pass. He can't pass to one of the smallest players in super league if he's stood on touchline.

Percy first thought should be go and then look to pass.

I don't think grace gives us anything at the moment tbh. His kick returns are very poor. He never beats a man . He s a accident waiting go happen.

I just feel he's to raw at this time

Yeah, he's learning. But if we don't play him, how does he ever improve? Given the conditions it might have been a good idea to rest Regan, however there were other's who made errors, Percy and Lomax in particular must have had similar stats.

And what's the alternative? Bring Swift back in? He'd have made as many errors as Grace but would have messed up the try he did score as well. Terrible player.

He may turn out to be good player but he's looking like a kid that's never played rugby before, that's how raw he is.

The main purpose of the u19s and reserves is for players to learn and he needs to learn the game.

It's at the point where it's effecting Percy. Percy is our main attack weapon and it's no coincidence his form dropped off massively with grace outside him. We have all the feckle saints fans shouting pass to grace every time Percy gets the ball but it's pretty clear Percy doesn't have confidence in grace.

Two times in the 2nd half Percy made breaks and Grace is 1cm off the touchline and 7 thousand saints fans shouting give it grace! If he gives it him he's in touch for sure ad he's so little . He didn't have the basic rugby brain to come on Percy inside.

Yes grace has pace and he had two good games over Easter but other than that he's done nothing but is accident waiting to happen and we've lost our main strike in Percy.

I agree with you to some extent, no point passing to a guy who will just get banjoed. Interesting against Hull Percy gave Grace ball on the wing and he was knocked into touch two or three times.

Grace doesnt yet possess the try scorers instinct of being able to anticipate a break in play and then be in the right position to exploit the break.
Offiah was a superb example of a player who had natural instinct for knowing were to be in order to be on the end of a break, sometimes even before the break had actually occurred. Regan at present tends to ball watch rather than follow play. With his pace and agility together with the breaks the team are now making he should be scoring more, or at the very least be getting involved more. He is reminding me more of Brimah Kebbie at present.

I think the full proof will be when Barba comes into the equation, the magic man has a reputation for being able to cause chaos with even the toughest of defences. If he brings that form into those final 4 games, then Regan should start to score regularly due to the space Barba is creating.

With games being more critical I think you've got too look at Swifty again and see how he responds if picked in the 17. Grace is looking like a player who is getting scared and losing confidence, he,s OK giving him ball with lots of space but defences will be tighter from now on.
Percival is our worse player for errors and is struggling having to cut back inside looking for a support player, Swifty does have better 1-2 combinations and returns the ball back much harder.

Swift has been a first team player for years. He's gash. Try and imagine a player who's even more of a liability than meli and that's swift. He's championship standard at best. Grace is raw yes but until he's done 4 years in the first time like swift it's totally unfair to compare.

Regards

King james

Usually a winger is only as good as his provider (centre), Swifty has every man and his dog inside of him in Josh Jones, Jordan Turner, Dom Peyroux, Tommy Makinson, Ryan Morgan, LMS, Mark Percival, Ashworth etc.
Regan Grace most of his games has had one of the best centres in Superleague in Percival.
Switch that scenario around and I think Grace would be insignificant.

I think they gave Big Al the Man of the match purely cause he was the only player on the pitch not to drop the ball

Really ? Nothing to do with the fact he was the best prop on the pitch by a country mile ?

Swift has played for years and got worse and worse every season. He's not good enough. At least whether Grace will be is still up for debate. It's times like this where man management comes into it. Rest him for a few games, get his confidence back and let him go again. I wouldn't bring Swift in to replace Grace though, that's how bad he is.

I think Grace needs to be taken out of the firing line for a short period to work on his core skills otherwise we will end up with a "Kevin Penny", bringing Swifty back in to see how he responds to wanting that shirt back, could be a win win situation if handled in the right way.