Some of the people who sit in the East make me laugh with their idiotic comments with regards to Pryce. When he's gang tackled by 3 opposition players he's rubbish for not powering out the other side yet when he bangs defenders out of the way for a try they sit there in silence. The minds are already made up. The lack of observation of what actually goes on on the pitch from some is worrying considering I've seen some of the same faces sat there for years.

I really do think we go on far too much about it, You don't become a bad player overnight, so he may be a confidence player, and scores a lot of tries off the work the lads inside of him do but isn't that what wingers are there for?

It's easy to see why he struggles with Confidence at home because even his own fans are shouting bad things to him all the way through the game to him, a Woman in front of me pointed this out yesterday at it's easy to see why.

Yeah he's no Inglis/Hayne or anyone like that but give him a chance, are we not supposed to get behind team and the players?

Why on earth has KP got protected status on this message board over the past few weeks?

Dave'"

He absolutly does not make decent metres. Pryce is doing fine at the minute, he is solid in defense and scoring trys. One thing he is definatly not doing is making metres.

He takes the ball to the line and collapses. The only thing that achieves is a reasonably quick play the ball becuase he drops onto his knees and elbows. I would much rather he 'ran his weight' and charged at the line, I don't care whether it hurts or not, theres 16 players out there next to him willing to do the same, he needs a few lessons from O'Carroll.

If he can start doing that we've got ourselves a useful winger imo. Can score trys and can get us out of danger when he needs to.

I am very impressed with the improvement made by Pryce, and a lot of the things people mention on here are true.

However, he needs to stop coming inside in defence. He almost cost us multiple times during last night's game, and has conceded other tries due to this in previous weeks.

I also think the judgements on missing him when he went off the pitch are pretty obvious considering we had to play Carmont there.

I must say that I'd rather have Goulding on the wing (and I acknowledge he has defensive frailties from time to time too).

Spot on. He drifted in and very nearly got caught out at 6-2, had Foster taken that pass (which he should have) then he'd have walked it in.

He's been playing well, but there's no denying that about 3/4 of his tries are because the players inside do a lot of the work. I do like him, and think he has a few things to offer us, but there's no fluke that all our wingers have been scoring tries freely this season - how many times have Carmont or Gleeson supplied the final pass out wide that led to a try?

Pryce goes down easily because he's the only 3/4 I know of that teams put three men in to tackle him each time.
A quick ptb when 3 have been in the tackle is ok.
Our props don't get too far when met by three tacklers.
Pryce will stay there until Richards returns to the left wing.
He's quick enough and big enough.
He's been left with overlaps to deal with before yesterday, like last week.
Wakey worked one and Morrison had two outside him, Pryce came in and tackled him and the whole terrace grimmaced with the force of the hit!
Yesterday he sent Foster flying backwards when he scored.
He's now played eight games this season and he's doing ok.
No superstar but certainly worth his place.

I'd have him at Saints over Gardner amd probably Meli (who is brilliant except for kick defence!) the stick he seems to get from your fans is daft. He is exactly what England need against the Ozzies, IMO, he and Hall would be great

I've been postive about him, but that's going waaay over the top.

Your kidding?

in my humble opinion he is a massive confidence player, which as now when its on the up is one of the best defensive wingers (thinking about Inglis and co ) and from 10 metres out on the wing is fairly unstoppable.
When his confidence is down and the fans are on his back though.....

better than Tom Briscoe or Fox against the Ozzies, IMO

I don't see as much of your team to judge as accurately as you lot as a whole can, but the follwoing is true afaik

Since getting himself back fit (which took a long time) he's scored 11 tries in 7 games.
He's massive - I'd say 6'4" and must be around 17 stone.

Now, british speccies often bemaon that we don't get the physcial freaks like Aus have unearthed in Inglis and Folau. Assuming Pryce is actually quick enough to play on the wing (which I'll assume he is) then he's the nearest thing we've got to this physical presence out wide.
The England coach will be looking at him - full stop.

Are his tries coming through his finishing or through Wigan's good play?
He flattened Foster for his try, but to be honest, I'd have fancied Meli or Gardener to get over (one way or another) in that situation also.

I do remember thinking when he was at bradford he never seemed to run the ball with a lot of venom, which is always frustrating when big guys do that. Does he have a lack of heart for the combat? I've played wingers that have ended the season with a hatfull of tries, but when you look they've mostly come in a glut against the bottom teams and hardly ever against better sides.

How do you think he'd perform against Aus or NZ?
If you could swap him for Ryan Hall, would you?

The only thing not up to scratch from him imo is the running the ball with venom as you mention. If he works on that a little bit he would be really good imo. I think he just needs to back himself more and start throwing his weight around a bit more

I've just watched the game again (masochistic tendencies) Had pryce stayed on we would have won that game.

Just before Joel drops the ball and Moore comes away (from which Saints score) Wigan move the ball quickly to the left and Carmont gets tackled by foster on the line.

Had that been Pryce it would have been a try in exactly the same manner as his try in the first half.

Nah, [iif[/i Pryce had still been on, Foster would have been looking for the intercept and gone the length to score.
So, its actually a good job for you he went off else it would never have been so close

Pat Richards would have scored that. Remember his four tries in the first half against Catalans? I would have also backed him to score in the corner where Pryce didn't have the speed, offloaded and Carmont got thrown into touch.



Any abuse handed out to our own players from our own fans is disgraceful. However some of the criticism Pryce has been receiving has been completely justified.

Please explain.

As far as yesterday goes, I think it's a near certainty Pryce would have scored in that last minute, simply because he'd have been so much taller than his opponent.

A few months ago, I'd never have imagined that I'd leave the stadium so regretful that Karl Pryce had been taken off injured.

About using his weight more to his advantage. It's frustrating when you have a player of his size and he doesn't use it. Okay he backed himself from 10 yards out against Foster, which makes it all the more frustrating when he doesn't do it from kick returns. A big fend and some aggression and Pryce's game would be completely different. Lesley Vainikolo and Inga Tuigamala were magnificent when they did it. Pat Richards uses his size to his advantage both close to the line and when returning kicks and I believe he would have scored Pryce's try and would have had another when Pryce didn't have the speed and had to offload to Carmont who was thrown into touch (just another indication to me he is more of a centre btw).

He is still nervy with kicks coming his way. Leon Pryce put a bomb up and Pryce didn't fancy taking it on the full and let it bounce. I've not watched it back yet, but I believe Leon was laughing at him. Again another indication he is more of a centre.

The final bit of criticism Karl seems to get is that he is a "big soft pudding" and so hobbling off after no massive contact - I'm happy to be proven wrong btw - doesn't help. He just seemed to suddenly start limping and him going off the pitch cost us as you admit to. So Karl still seems injury prone and we all know about his foot problems.

On the other hand I will praise him for his two big shots on Wellens. Great stuff. His finish for his try was superb and that offload for Carmont, which although I believe a winger with more pace & acceleration like Richards/Roberts/Goulding/Ainscough would have scored, it was nevertheless superb and just backs up my claims he is a centre. He is nervy with kicks because he is not a winger IMO.

Out of interest, where do you believe Pryce is best Rogues?

Pryce went off injured. Saints had already tried to spread the ball wide down his wing before he was taken off and would have done so again with every potential to score.

Has there been any report of what injury Pryce has this time?

Short term - wing.
Long term - centre


I think you're being a bit harsh on his injury though, and I thought he ran the ball well yesterday.
His injury was caused by having to jump over Sam Tomkins and all his weight came down on his ankle as he fell awkwardly.

As I said I think had he been on later in the game he would have scored one maybe two more tries.

I'm not sure why we didn't push Pat Richards out to the wing for that late kick play.

Just don't know what to make of Pryce. Yes, he's scored a few out wide, but most of those were walk-ins. For me he just seems to saunter up with the ball. I know his size and bulk mean he can't do a Roberts and zip along the line or cut through players but i just don't know who else to play. I'd suggest we either have Pat and Amos on the wings and buy a quality full back or have Roberts at FB, Pat on one wing and A.N.Other on the other. Maybe Pryce needs a full season under his belt but if he is injured again i feel we might have no option but to get rid...

I think I agree with you RE Pryce's position. He's not going to get any game time above Gleeson and Carmont when they're fit and he has needed to build some confidence and match fitness after nearly two years out of Super League rugby.

I could be being harsh on the injury, but his injury proneness does worry me. I will have to watch the incident back. When he runs the ball back he could do so much more. He has no gusto or aggression when he runs at players. A man of his size should be inviting more and more players to tackle him. He just hits the line and falls over. He should look to use his size and push in the tackle or start fending a few players off. Pat Richards does and he is smaller than Pryce. Goulding spins in every tackle when he returns the ball and eats up the metres when he runs back at the line. Pryce could definitely offer more.

That's the way he's always played the game. He'll not change.