Back to his best and has certainly convinced me that he is not wasted at full back.

And to think some people were calling him 'not good enough to be in a SL team with aspirations' at the start of the season. The lad is quality. The same people were questioning clark. the fact of the matter is our halves/backs/pivots are not starting to look the business because they are now playing behind a forward pack that has dominated the opposition middle.

Forwards decide who wins the game. The backs decide by how much.

Clark for me has been the most outstanding and is better than his MOS year at Cas due to his defensive work.

Ratchford is not back to his best at all, he’s much better. He’s got all the confidence in the world now he’s slotted into this structured attack of Price’s. Way more comfortable than having to play off the cuff at half back in the Smith-style teams. If Bennett picks him for England again this year no one could argue with it. Last year it was questionable but justified due to utility value - this year he’s the in-form British full back and its only the brilliance of Barba that’s hiding his achievements in SL.

Is full back the most important attacking role now, taking over from half back?

Price and the coaching team ordered the performance analysts to concentrate their cameras on Ratch for a full 80 mins early on in the season - since then the coaching has brought out the best from him .. well done to all concerned! He's been outstanding since the Wakey game at home

He's even started carrying the ball out from his own line with 2 hands! Hallelujah!

i for one called him early doors and the team too..so glad im eating a huge slice of humble pie..keep it up boys...

Ratch and especially Daryl Clark have been exceptionally good this season.

So was Tony Smith more of a great motivator and tactician with players already at the standard, whereas Price is actually a better ‘coach’ who can improve players even if the rugby is simple, structured stuff?

Would seem that way. The NRL way?

Its hard to argue against Price not being a better coach. The improvement in the players inherited from Smith would back up this theory.

Nothing simple and structured about a couple of the try's last Friday. Played what was in front of them and the players flooding through in support was refreshing.

Would it?...or would that back up the new coach syndrome.
Smith had a mirror effect on Paul Cullen's team.

Actually I think this is a big part of it. The difference being that Cull as a coach had taken the players as far as he could, Smith on the other hand was disinterested ( that is my interpretation of "fell out of love with the game"icon_wink.gif.

My opinion is that Smith was ok when there were overseas players of reasonable quality on tap to sign up. They didn't even have to be great players to look good in SL. Unfortunately,when coaching & development of young players to first team status was called for the coaching set up was found wanting.

Yes one thing we can definitely credit the current set up with, is recognising that the club needed building from the bottom upwards. This is the first time since 1997 that we’ve taken a current Australian-bred coach (Anderson was a performance specialist and Smith earned his spurs here) and this Australian coach has been involved for years with the whole modern system in place over there. It may take a little while to bear fruit, but we’ve also got to credit the club for tasking someone with restructuring the whole system, rather than just employing a proven first team coach. Price seems to have so much enthusiasm for taking responsibility of it all. It’s good to see.

There’s a tendency to go OTT on this forum. I’ve a lot of time for Ratch. He’s a very good player and I’m happy with him at fullback but he’s not at the same level as Widdop. If you check out the World Cup - Widdop’s positional play at fullback was top draw. Under Price though he’s improving.

For those being disgruntled with Smith, I think many have short memories. It’s always easy to critisize. I’m glad he was our coach and brought us trophies and some fantastic footy.
Of course he wasn’t perfect and had some things going for him - not least an organised club which not all past and present coaches can say - but how many bad seasons did he have? Or are we fans becoming like soccer fans when if we don’t win we call for the coaches head?

I think the problem coaches face in terms of their credit with the fans is that they are always OK while the club is on the up - even if the improvement is slow and steady. The problem comes when the team hits a bump in the road and has one or two seasons that were not as good as ones before. In this case having early success can be a millstone around the coach in future (see Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and Martinez at Everton).

Also there's a tendency to rewrite history and judge former coaches more fondly as time goes on. I remember at the end of the Brian Johnson era, a tiredness amongst the fans similar to that which came at the end of TS reign. He'd taken us up to the brink of greatness in 93/94 and then had 18 months of steadily slipping away, so even before the 80-0 most people at the games thought it was time for change. But later during the struggles of the DVDV and Anderson/Plange years, the Johnson years got remembered fondly as a time of relative success.

The same happened with Cullen. The good times with Cullen were basically: staying up at the end of 2002, the whole 2003 season, and the long winning run in the summer of 2005 capped off by us signing Johns and again having a glimpse of glory. We then had two and half frustrating years of signing more and more big names and not getting any better, people were calling for a "culture change", Cullen was too close to the players, couldn't get the best out of them, Briers had wasted his talent etc etc.

But by the end of the TS time, the revisonist view of the Cullen era was that he assembled a team that was bound for glory but was harshly sacked too soon and TS came in and rolled along to three Challenge Cups from the benefit of the great team Cullen left him.

I wonder if in a few years time there will be theories on here that the reason Price won those trophies early on in his spell, was down to TS leaving him class acts like Ratchford, Clark, Hill, Kevin Brown, King, Hughes...

I do hope so

Well regardless of who inherited which players etc - if Price takes us to a GF win and our first title in 60+ years then I'll consider him our greatest coach in my lifetime even if it ends up being just the once. If and its a big if he manages that this year i still see him sticking around for a year or two more to carry on laying his foundations with the youth. I wasnt keen on his appointment but he's proving me wrong and the highest praise i can pay him was during Friday's game i wasnt worried, i knew we'd come back....not felt that since 2011.

I don’t think most of the comments about Smith are questioning what he achieved for us, just that it was for different reasons. Maybe his strengths were working with teams full of talented individuals, and getting them to produce champagne rugby. Hopefully Price’s strength is taking a team that’s more Lambrini than Dom Perignon, and giving them the basic structures to grind out a win in a war of attrition, with the odd bit of flair (like on Friday). I’m no big fan of Shaun Wane, but his achievements at Wigan with a cheaper squad puts our 3 cups (last won five years ago BTW) into perspective. We’re all grateful for Smith, but it was definitely time for change IMO.

easyWire this is a squad that is over the salary cap (when you take into account the marquee exemption before other fans get too excited), if it is "Lambrini" then someone needs to answer for it. I actually think you are being a bit unfair Ratchford, Atkins, Charnley, Roberts, Hill, Clarke, Currie and BMM are definitely a cut above. K Brown, Cooper, Lineham hardly bargain basement.

Sally C I think in defence of TS it was a board error to allow him so much club control.
The Pies template seems to be one of lessened failure. Executive having full control of none pitch none playing pitch activities.
We seemed to have moved towards that following on from TS. Karl F taking a more responsibility role.

When I say Lambrini vs Dom Perignon I’m referring to the relative quality, not the value. I like this current squad but I think it would be silly to say it’s of a higher calibre than the one of 2011-2013.

Smith’s squad in the good years was almost certainly more talented in most positions, and I was using that towards the argument of Smith being better at utilising superstars, whereas I’d back Price to make better use of good/average players. Smith certainly didn’t have a good track record with key players who were less than star quality - 2014/15/17 showed that.

Maybe instead of Lambrini I should have used Moet vs Dom Perignon i.e. decent enough for the wife’s birthday but you were never going to spend more than £25 on her and certainly not £120 a bottle like Dommy P.

I was one a few months back that was doubting Ratchs' credentials at Full Back. However, i also said i would be happy to be proved wrong. He is is in fine form at present and looks to be improving game on game.

I think the coaching staff aswel as Stef himself need to take massive credit for this (especially getting him to return the ball with both hands, haha)......he has been simply superb the past couple of months. Long may it continue.

LW - I agree with you to an extent.
But it's easy to shine in a winning team and one that's playing with confidence.
I don't see him in the same league as Barba whose play influences all those around him, but Ratch is an intelligent player and I think his learning curve has increased with a new coach and new ideas coming in.
I think that's why coaches have a shelf life at a club.

man of steel candidate defo,,would,nt of said that after the opening few games

My first post for some time. I really can’t see why people were ever doubting Ratchford. Even during last season he was one of the few who ever looked like breaking the line or giving that try scoring pass. During this current run of games both zratch and Clark have been outstanding. He is dangerous each and every time he gets the ball in hand.