We're just watching the game back from last night and I had to post about how incredible Atkins played. He's improved tenfold since we first signed him, which is impressive considering he was already a great player.

The sheer strength he showed last night in defence was amazing. He has really good awareness and ball movement and is rapidly becoming a stand-out performer, which is impressive considering we have a team of stand-out performers.

I'm not sure how long he has left on his contract but I really hope it's a good, lengthy one!

He really was very good last night, has always been a strong runner, but seems to have more awareness and better ball skills this season, especially last month or so..... running was excellent and was hitting very hard (wonder what he benches).

Even thought he was going to start fighting with Radford at one point.



I liked his smile at the fans before he dove for his try, think his really enjoying his rugby atm.

best english centre 2nd best centre in league behind king

Just watching the red button coverage from last night:

King isn't even the best centre at Warrington. He has been excellent on the wing, but has only played centre three times this season for us.

What the hell happened for his try??? Dreadful play by Hull, brilliant play by Atkins.

If there's a better centre in the league at the moment then i'd like to see him. Upper body centre is astonishing

I wouldn't swap him for any other centre in SL.

The "Young Freddie Mercury" lookalike is playing some sensational rugby this year.

IF he's selected in the 4 nations, I hope he carries this on. If he doesn't, he risks his international future, especially after last year's 'no show'. Come on Atkins, show them how.

When we signed him we were told he couldn't/wouldn't pass, just look at him now 12 try assists to go along with his 21 tries. Plus there's plenty of other tries where he's played a big part but not been the final passer.

He breaks a lot of tackles that then lead to clean breaks so he offers a lot in attack and he has also become more solid in defence. He's really shown why we paid £200,000 for him.

helps if you've got a hooker/halves to create some room for him to exploit to the full.

He's a fooking hoss though, i love atkins, and you can tell he's made up to be a part of the warrington wolves.

Wasn't there a story where he was quoted as saying he'd received a ton of stick from his friends after posting "Atkins is a wire!" on facebook when watching us beat Hudds at Wembley?

I still fondly recall RobWire's thread questioning his pace.

I knew Atkins a couple of years ago (from Wakey) and I thought he had promise but wasn't willing to work for it. I think what I am trying to say is think along the lines of profesional footballers who have all the talent but don't feel they need to work on things as they like the celebriy lifestyle and thats Atkins. And tbf I thought of him as a bit no make that a lot of a knob. But credit were credit is due he seems to have improved a lot how much has been done by coaching staff or whether someone has told him I do not know. I also hope that he carries this on into the international scene, if not a decent coach my axe him.

Also fair play for his first try as I thought it shouldn't have been awarded but on strength and play to the whistle.

Why should it not have been awarded? He is driving Westerman back and hasn't lifted his leg at any point, don't see how it could be disallowed.

I'm not trying to de-rail the thread (honest) but I just want to move it sideways.

Just a little aside from fatbaztod's comment re Atkins' attitude
Just where do we attribute Atkins' upgrade in form?
Is it :-
a) Atkins himself, if he's told himself to stop being a 'Billy Big Biscuits'
b) Smith. Atkins was previously coached by Kear (reasonably well respected coach) and was a good player. Smith has him for a year, and he gains international honours (but he made a bit of a mess of it). 12 months further on, and (imo) he's double the player he was, when we first signed him. Something similar can be attached to King. Awesome reputation when we first signed him. Stagnated under Cullen/Lowes. Improved under Smith's first year or so, and now, back to his old NRL, SoO, Test Match level
or c) the introduction of a well respected sports psychologist to our club.

I think there's lots to this, stuff like Myler being better than he was has helped Atkins, it's a game of fractions on Myler is now better at holding up a defender that extra half a second etc than he was, see Riley's try on Friday for example. Small detail lost in the game that makes the difference.

On a similar vein, he's playing in a very clever team, like how Atkins found himself on the outside of Whiting on the wing with Riley at centre for Riley's 2nd try. This doesn't happen by fluke, TS has engineered a plan to expose Whiting on the wing, Atkins is good enough to line him up, the result is on the scoreboard. This wouldn't happen at Wakefield.

We're just a very good team, well coached with a head coach who's attention to detail is fantastic and we now have a team who can execute these plans to perfection. There was lots of this on show on Friday, driving at Manu & Yeaman to take juice out of the tank etc, moving King to right centre to make this happen, amazing stuff.

Watching Friday's game back on the idiot lantern, I think my favourite moment is still the look on Monas' face in slow-mo as Atkins rips the ball out and sets off. His eyes widen to the size of dinner plates in disbelief and excitement. Been great all year Atkins, he's like the lovechild of Shergar and Freddie Mercury, only with more teeth...

Week on week he's improved since ge signed. Friday's performance personfied that and i think Friday will nail him on as the England LCentre for the Four Nations over Yeaman, Welham and Shenton. If it doesn't then Macnamara wont be picking the right man.

Atkins was excellent on Friday and made a mess of FC's right side on almost every carry. He made Whiting (who is normally very good for them) look clueless.

You can see Myler in the background too, he just looks shocked that he had stolen it!

Surely Monas must have had a call from Atkins to get out of the tackle, he clearly lifts his hands off and steps back. Atkins must have intended to try the ball steal.

I really like him with ball in hand, but he was made to look pretty silly in defence last year in an England shirt. Lots of air grabbing and poor decisions.

Perhaps he's improved in that respect, haven't seen enough of him in 2011 to judge really.

He has definitely improved his defence this year. In fact, I don't think there's really been a weak link in the side defensively because of the improvement of players like Atkins and Myler.

Ryan to me has always looked like a Big Game player, i'll point to his great showing in the CC final last year. But i have defended him on numerous occasions to other wire fans, saying he is still young and learning his trade, he will only get better under smith, and he has proved this and done so this year. He is not a world beater yet, but a very solid centre and one that will only continue to get better under Smith's tutelage.