I tend to agree, but I think Roberts offers us something more at Full Back than Phelps does. The injection of pace and skill he's shown this season has been fantastic, and he's scored some brilliant tries at times too.

On the radio they were calling for Pryce to be called up for the Four Nations at the end of the year.

He's getting much better each week as his confidence grows. I still see him as a centre long-term though.

Guys like Pryce and Goulding play a big part in why I’ve been so vocal about not wanting us to sign Kev Brown.

I’d hate to see guys like these two lose out after the effort and development they’ve both shown this season.

For me both have done enough to have earned new deals for next season and they’ve both played big parts in everything that’s good about this current Wigan side. At the start of the season neither were starters but yet being able to call on these guys when players like Phelps, Roberts and Carmont were down knowing that they’d fit in with little fuss or disruption has shown the strength in depth the squad has.

Not bad seeing many ‘in the know’ said our squad lacked depth.

ive bee nvery critial of pryce in the past. i watch most academy games as well as first team games. Right now he is making me eat my words and i will be the first to admit it. Hope he continues to improve and becomes a top SL winger

People need to realise (as has been mentioned) it's not really a straight swap between Goulding and Pryce. For goulding to play that would mean moving Roberts away from the wing and putting Richards back on the left, and as we're still winning I think i'd rather leave it with Richards at fullback until Roberts starts to get his confidence and form back again.

We have options though. Makes a change doesn't it? Where were these options when we only had Mathers to play at FB!?!

Yeah Bradford, Sheriffe, Halley and Reardon

, seriously i hope you release one of Pryce, Goulding and Ainscough so we can snap one of them up instead of the shower we have.

i hate to use the "transition" word but I think this might be the case with Goulding and Pryce. Pryce is improving in every game so for him to reach his potential he needs to be playing (first team as eading reports on here he is uninterested in reserve games) MM can see what goulding offers as well as Pryce but if we are building fior next year we need Pryce to play as many games as possible to reach his potential for either the back end of this season or for next. I apreciate this seems unfair on goulding who ha done little wrong, but I think MM is taking a calulated risk and giving Pryce Game time over Goulding while we are a few points ahead.

I still prefer Pat on the wing, and Amos at full back; I think that's a stronger attacking option. Pryce has come along massively, but there are a couple of things I'd like to see from him before he can be called a genuine threat on the wing:

Can he use his height in attack, as Pat does so effectively?
Does he have the pace to be a winger - we still haven't seen him make the most of a break from distance.

I too wonder if he might be better as a centre.

I thought Pryce was very good yesterday, he's definitely enjoying his rugby now and is improving week on week. I also thought Amos looked very dangerous at fullback for the last 15 minutes. So i think the back three for Saints should be
Amos at fullback, Richards left wing and Pryce on the right wing.

Pryce is doing very well at the moment. A good run of games seems to have given him the confidence he needed and the wing spot is now his to lose.

There are still aspects of his game that come into question. He still seems a little unsure dealing with kicks, and his work rate is still quite poor for a winger and he possibly lacks a bit of pace, but at the moment he's doing his job well and has earned his starting spot.

Even though there are still one or two minor problems I don't think there is too much to worry about even if he doesn't improve those areas of his game. I think if kicks are a problem and work rate is also a bit of an issue it just means centre could well be the position that is best suited to him.
We've seen that he doesn't quite have the agility to scoot from dummy half like some of our other backs, but as a centre that's not too much of an issue, neither are kicks.
He's got superb handling skills which are wasted a little bit by playing on the wing. He's got the size to deal with the bigger players that tend to target the centres and would also be a big help for a smaller halfback defending out wide.
Someone that size is also likely to draw in a couple of players, so at centre there's a good chance that the winger will come inside to help his centre and leave our winger some space.

At the moment it's probably best to keep him on the wing whilst he's going well there. Some consistency is just as important as anything else, but since I read somewhere that Carmont might be considering retirement at the end of the year then Pryce might be a good bet as a replacement if that happens and he keeps on improving game by game.

whats going on with goulding ??/
whens he out of contract ?

He said last year that is where he wants to play and it is where he feels most comfortable. However, at the moment I think playing on the wing is best for him just to get back up to speed with the game and build up some confidence. From then on I hope he gets a few games at centre. His pass for George Carmont at Huddersfield showed a glimpse of what he could be like. He's still reasonably quick for a big bloke and a player of that size coming at you, with good ball skills (no Pryce family joke intended) can cause teams a lot of problems. So all this little niggly things that people are picking at such as being nervy with kicks and not being quick enough on the wing I don't consider real problems for Pryce because he's more suited to centre. The only problem he could have is his ability to slide in defence and deal with players that have good footwork and are faster than him. But we'll only see how he goes there when he gets a shot.

Nothing is going on with Goulding. His contract is up at the end of the year. I suspect he will get another deal. Ian Lenagan refused to let him go to Warrington last year in the Mathers + cash deal for Gleeson, stating that Wigan had invested too much into his development to see him leave for another rival club.

Goulding has to stay.
As for Pryce, he dropped a high kick yesterday but it was no coincidence that it went backwards. It was pouring with rain and both teams were dropping the thing. Pryce did have the sense to angle his body so that if he did drop it the result would be it would fall towards the Wigan line and there would be no knock on, which there wasn't.
As I mentioned, he has a long way to go yet but he's doing remarkably well for only seven games!

Ainscough, Pat, Pyrce. It doesnt matter whose on the wing outside George Carmont they will score loads of tries. George is class!

Agree'd!

There is an awful lot of truth in that. If Ainscough had been playing in these 7 games he would have scored just as many. Although Pryce had a little more to do for his tries yesterday than his previous ones they were still relatively easy for a winger. As you say a lot of that credit has to go to Carmont who is very classy in attack and can set up tries for anyone.

Pryce still has a long way to go, in particular with his work rate and kick returns, but Wakefield was probably his best game so far. He has still yet to face any of the better teams, bar Leeds in the cup where he did little and was found wanting at times, and it will be interesting to see how he gets on next week if selected

Very true, but not always in the usual sense that a centre passes to his winger for the score. As often as not, it's worked by George keeping the opposition centre and winger too far infield, allowing those long cutout passes from Lockers, Pat or Sam.

Although it's a fairly basic play, with the fullback joining the line to create the extra man, the detailed way it's been developed, and the lines that the attackers run to hold the slide, have obviously been worked on many times on the training pitch.

(Oh , I'm starting to sound like Cullen! Can we have one of those TV thingies with the red squares and arrows & stuff, please?)

I think we will line up with how we finished the game on sunday.

1. roberts
2. richards
5. pryce

with richards outside gleeson and pryce outside carmont.

Statistics are interesting but misleading. Richards is the best of the above four players...for wing, full-back or prop forward!
Ainscough had a good scoring rate last season and where is he now?

I genuinely couldn't tell you without looking at some other clubs website. Widnes, blackpool or our reserves. He seems to have completely fallen off the radar.

Although no doubt you have his body mass index immediately to hand.

Without going in to too much detail, it's not as good as Jonny Walker's.

Well, he's only just completed his 3-match ban, which is why he's been off the radar. Last I heard, he's dual reg at Widnes.

Of course. I'd forgotten about that.