Haha I'd hazard a guess that if he had, it would only enhance my Wife's opinion that I am indeed a legendary lover who cannot be equalled - even by an international rugby league player....

Really though, I've just never seen anything in Widdop to suggest he's a top draw half, whilst some think he's a real talent..... And in fairness, he might still be the best we have available, which is a shambles!

I watched the Dragons earlier. They have some good individuals but they are a poor team. Fancy having an Origin centre who can't pass! They seem to like Widdop in Australia cos he's busy and he defends well, which ticks a lot of boxes for them, but he doesn't offer much in attack. I'd just as soon see Kevin Brown get the shirt. I think he's a smarter footballer than Widdop.

The Origin centre who can't pass will probably be mimicked almost exactly by Hardaker.

Widdop is a far better player than Brown by a long way. For one thing, Widdop manages to pass the ball backwards 99% of the time. He's playing in a side of individuals at the moment and often carries the team. Brown is overrated in my opinion and it says a lot about the current HB options available to England.

The Butcher> We'll have to agree to differ there, then.

I think the Aussies are a bit more cold and mechanistic in the way they evaluate players than we are in the UK . They value players who consistently make their percentages, turn up every week and execute the game plan well. The flash stuff is great, but in their tighter and more intense game there is less space for that sort of stuff. When ex-NRL halves come over here we rave about their skills, but they are playing with more space and we're more forgiving if they blow hot and cold or they give away as many points as they create. We only see Widdop in NRL games and tests, we don't see what he'd be like with more space in SL. Having said that if he was in SL most UK fans would still prefer the sort of halves who do something spectacular and flash for ten minutes every other game and are anonymous the rest of the time!

I agree on the Aussies' attitude to players, but even if Widdop were playing in the 'easier' SL, I don't see much in his game to suggest he'd have the creativity of a Kev Brown, or, indeed, George Williams, who had yet another fine game in our excellent win last night.

Only his second game today, and he's playing in a poor Penrith side, but think Zak Hardaker showed up the difference between SL and NRL against Cronulla.

Bearing in mind they were missing their Origin players, he was outmuscled, outran and shown up for some poor passing. You could say a continuation of his form for Leeds this year, but can see him really struggling to make an impact without stepping up his game and physique. Wouldn't be surprised to see him back in 2017.

Well, as expected, Zak Hardaker v Ben Barba - no contest!



Mind you, he can best much better players than Hardaker.

I see the unbiased Aussie commentary team described a poor high pass from Zak as "the worst pass EVER!" even though it was retrieved and no harm was done. Surely they can remember Golden Boy Slater's pass to Benji Marshall in a World Cup Final!

Barba has been excellent this year. But I'd have expected Zak to have held him up on the second try. As usual he couldn't link in on attack (though the whole panthers team was off in that department today). Can't see him getting picked over Moylan, Watene Zelezniak or Mansour, which means he might well be back in a Leeds shirt next year.

One thing I did noticed had cleaned up from his debut was his PTB, was clean and legal every time. Shows how easy it would be to clean it up as some of the ones in the Hull/Leeds game were atrocious, or maybe I'm just noticing because I watch more NRL these days?

Well it wasn't great, was it? He didn't have the worst game in the world, but I doubt he'll remember it fondly. He'll have to sharpen up fast.

Just watched the Panthers game. How people seem to be blaming Zak and the massive chasm between NRL and the SL for the loss is either just blinkered aussie bias or anti Rhinos/Zak hate.

It was a uneventful solid game from him. It was his Aussie superstar teammates that made the mistakes leading to most of the trys.

Hardly. I wouldn't blame him for the defeat, but, put it this way; he was one of Penrith's poorer performers on the day. But two games in, he can be forgiven for that. As I said, he'll need to sharpen up fast if he hopes to gain a regular place. As BGE rightly says, would you honestly pick Zak over Moylan, Watene-Zelezniak or Mansour?

The comparison to the 'massive chasm' is a non sequitur. If Zak is evidence of a massive chasm, what are Hodgson, Graham, and co?

It's also worth pointing out that several of Zak's 'superstar Aussie team-mates' are rookies with much less first-grade experience than he has.

I didn't think he had a bad game. He just looked like a guy playing with new players and didn't always fit in the line properly.
He just needs confidence to hit the line more.

Think you'd be reading too much into it to see it as anti-English bias, most commentators usually really speak up the English players, I'm convinced Rabs has a picture of 'Jimmy' Graham on his bedside table.

Ray "Rabs"/"Rabbie" Warren loves James Graham and Samuel Burgess. He also admires the man he calls "Widd-OPP." Mr Warren comes from the Australian generation that still feels affection for Britain as the Mother Country.

Raymond.

Mate im as bigger rhino fan as anyone, Zak was miles away from solid. Zak was very poor, looked unfit and out of his depth.

Simply not good enough so far to get a contract.

He needs a proper NRL pre season to stand a chance.

If he is serious about an NRL career and lucky enough to get an opportunity he should make himself unavailable for England to knuckle down in pre season.

He'd be lucky to be in the England squad on this season's form anyway

Be interesting to see who Bennett selects for fullback because as an aussie he'll value percentages and tomkins is poor in defence and seems to have become abit of a biscuit legs.

But, he can provide that attacking edge something we always lack at that level.

Tomkins has been unbelievable in defence since returning. It's probably been even better than his attack which still hasn't fully clicked.

With Hardaker out of sorts, it has to be Sam T surely? Bennett doesn't seem the type to go with a left-field choice like Shaul.

Anyway, as Wigg'n rightly says, Sam has been excellent in defence since his return.

The thing that stood out for me was how weak in the collision Hardaker was. Some of his other mistakes like being a bit slow to react can easily be picked up, but Hardaker is one of the more physical SL backs and yet looked way too lightweight. Eden and Joe Burgess similarly lack any kind of physical presence. Eden perhaps not surprising, but although Burgess is a reasonable size he gets rag-dolled too much.

They said in pre match Hardaker had put on 4 kg in a week - I expect if he did a pre season he'd add close to another 10 without losing sweat. I wouldn't be surprised if the Panthers do keep him on that basis TBH, as whilst he doesn't look strong enough ATM he's not afraid of the rough stuff and I think he can improve enough to be a very solid NRL player.

I was looking forward to Tomkins fading into obscurity but he is probably already a better all round payer than when he left.