I feel the same about Powell, I think some of the criticism of him has been OTT, and he has put in a few half-decent performances, but it doesn't look like he's the answer as a Wigan 7. It would be so lovely to see us blow Cas away with a great attacking performance next week, but it's hard to see that right now.



But of course, I wouldn't be devastated with a 9-8 win.

Feel like banging my head against the wall every time I see a shout for Tomkins to mive into the hales; why limit him to only one half of the pitch and make him do far more tackling?! Madness.

Matty Smith?! There are other HBs in the world other than past Wigan players, forget him, and forget moving Tommy back to 7. Learn from past mistakes, don’t return back to them.

The answer isn’t currently at Wigan. Powell isn’t it, clearly. Escare needs a run there, but I fear his defence might be an issue in the line.
Woods? Too inexperienced just yet. His lace of pace worries me for a long term 7.

What happened to Shorrocks?

Ssd thing is our best half, best 13, and best prop is the same person; Lockers.

I remember when a scrum half was a key position. Bout time we started treating it as such.

And some people are slating williams saying he's doing nothing,there's only williams creating anything in my opinion.We need a top class scrum half who can create chances aswell and powell isn't that person.

For me we just need someone with a good long kicking game and can organise. Would anyone take Patton from Wire?i think he would complement Williams well and he seems out of favour at Wire.

I think we must be watching different games! I don’t see much creativity coming from Williams. I do agree though in that we need to invest in a top class 7

Williams’ creativity starts at a show and go onto a sidestep and then ends at being tackled. It’s predictable garbage and it’s happening 10+ times a game. Why he’s still allowed to keep on doing it is absolutely beyond me.

Williams is at the heart of our left side attack and if people can’t see it then I don’t know what they’re watching. We’re scoring loads down that edge and it’s his involvement and the way he is engaging defenders and getting them interested that is opening up defences and creating the opening for th centres and wingers.
He doesn’t have to be scoring length of the field tries to be effective.

Seriously? I don’t know what you’ve been watching. Engaging defenders? Opening up defences? That’s tosh mate. I’m not asking for full lengthers, I’m asking for effectiveness and creativity instead of being a greedy get and doing his usual predictable garbage.

Go back a few weeks and watch the tries down our left edge. Virtually every one of them starts with a burst of speed or a great pass from GW. Is he playing perfectly? No but he sure as heck doesn’t deserve some of the tosh on here at the moment!

He deserves everything he gets! He’s just going through the motions and has been since he got his marquee deal sorted. I still say that he should be dropped to the bench, every other player has been switched and rotated to try and find a solution to our woeful half back situation, but George continues with the same predictable shoite week in week out and nothing changes. Maybe he has a clause in his marquee contract that says he can’t be dropped!

Wow, some people just can’t see the wood for the trees or simply don’t understand rugby league.

I played the game for 18yrs I think I’ve a pretty good understanding

I agree there’s room for improvement with GW but can you really not see how his involvement inside our left edge is causing opposing teams trouble? Lockers did the same last week at Catalan and was rightly credited for what he did. GW has set up a load of tries down that side and I certainly wouldn’t want to see him lining up against us that’s for sure, even in his current form.

I think part of my frustration is that I know he’s a far better player than his current form is showing but he isn’t changing anything in his game to improve, now you could argue that this maybe down to coaching however the George Williams of 2018 is a shadow of the player that He was 18 months ago. Maybe this constant switching of players doesn’t help his cause because he never has a settled half back partner to bond with.

Can’t argue with any of that.

Correct. Even though not at his best, he’s second in SL for try assists, with 11, only 1 behind the leader, Myler. Last season he was best by a mile, way ahead of Mcguire in second place. He’s also streets ahead in attacking kicks for us, double Sam in second. Now I know stats don’t show everything, but they do at least give a good indication.

the frustration is that he doesnt learn. a few weeks back, we were going left and he tried a pass that didnt work.
5 minutes later, same position, same pass, same result.
5 minutes after that - Sam is in the same position and tries something different - we score.
GW has lots of individual skills, but Sam is streets ahead at reading a game and bringing other players into the action.
Game sense is something which the stats dont show.

When has he really 'bonded' with any halves partner, though? Never, to any great extent, I would have said.

A pre requisite for any scrum half is that he should be able to pass the ball, some of Powell’s passing is shocking and not of the standard required for a club hoping to challenge for honours.

A case in point being the pass to Williams in the lead up to Gildarts try, only a bit of quick thinking and good handling by Williams saved the move.

He hasn’t bonded and that’s my point, but is that down to the chopping & changing or is it down to George himself.

Quote ="100% Warrior"Williams’ creativity starts at a show and go onto a sidestep and then ends at being tackled. It’s predictable garbage and it’s happening 10+ times a game. Why he’s still allowed to keep on doing it is absolutely beyond me.'" Williams is a conundrum. I don't rate him and I think he's particularly lacking game sense, case in point: he took a drive in on tackle 5 last night. However, he topped the table for assists last year and is second this year www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... ayer_stats. He's involved in everything that the left edge (our most dangerous edge) do, in the team that have scored more tries than anyone else this year. I can't make sense of it. Though, I'd be a lot more accepting of his faults if he wasn't on marquee wages.

Quote ="100% Warrior"Williams’ creativity starts at a show and go onto a sidestep and then ends at being tackled. It’s predictable garbage and it’s happening 10+ times a game. Why he’s still allowed to keep on doing it is absolutely beyond me.'" Williams is a conundrum. I don't rate him and I think he's particularly lacking game sense, case in point: he took a drive in on tackle 5 last night. However, he topped the table for assists last year and is second this year www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... ayer_stats. He's involved in everything that the left edge (our most dangerous edge) do, in the team that have scored more tries than anyone else this year. I can't make sense of it. Though, I'd be a lot more accepting of his faults if he wasn't on marquee wages.

Think Williams is a bit of a victim of his own success. He had a great 18 months or so around 2015/16 but hasn’t really developed since then. You have to consider he’s made over 100 appearances for the club now which is a massive amount for a 23 year old but he should now be a lot more consistent. His defence however is IMO one of the best in the league for a halfback.

You’re seriously too harsh on Williams here.
The lad had two options; the above and the incredibly frustrating, usually crap, kick towards Burgess’ wing. Even when it (rarely these days) results in a try I find myself rolling my eyes and almost wishing it hadn’t resulted in such, because it’s so beige to watch.

For a half back I agree his defence is fantastic, but we don’t pay him marquee rate for being a good tackler. I really hope that he proves the majority of us wrong because when he is on his game he is a joy to watch.

Not making too many excuses for Williams here as what he did was naughty. But if Golding needs a head guard that badly you’d think he’d have a back up.