He played 3 pre season games on the wing and was outstanding especially at Wire.

In total he had 4 or 5 games to build up his confidence and he kicked on from there. He still seems to be mentally struggling with the injury so to ease him in would seem fare.

We have a 'duty of care' don't you know

Your right and it wasn't good enough and there are no excuses or scapegoats only bad FB play. There is little point putting the brick wall up in defence and then fluffing the kick as simply it negates the great work before.



When was his link up play outstanding? His kick returns were outstanding and he was the master at joining the line and skipping through the defence. The Cas game was a perfect example of this but I’m struggling to remember when he linked up and created room for other with a pass or kick? Think back to last season and Wire away which is undoubtedly the height of Amos’s excellent form and he was still fluffing passes to the winger then. He 2 world class individual tries but as team FB he left much to be desired.



I’m not basing it on the one pass from St George and the one from last night. Read my post history all the way into last season regarding Amos at FB and you’ll see that I simply don’t rate him as a FB. He’s all flash and no substance. I’d argue it’s like having Jason Robinson at FB. Everyone will rave about him beating the first man, scoring a few tries but as a complete FB there is a lot missing. Simply it's un-defendable for Amos not to make those passes when tries are an almost certainty and games are in the balance.



That’s fair enough as that’s what these boards are about.



Roberts as there wasn’t anyone else but he’s not our long term FB. Great winger but average FB.

must admit i am the type of fan who will remember what a player has done in the past and then allow that to form part of any current judgement on a player and this occurs with roberts now too. i'm dying for him to just chip in with a quality try and looking closely last night he did make a few breaks, maybe not clean breaks, and some good metres for us but on the flip side he has played two competitive games this year out of the six so it's no great hardship that we only conceded six points against a good full strength side. ok hudds did fluff a few chances but on the wqhole last night was a great test of our defence.

fair enough roberts looked as dodgy as my stomach after a night at the Raj under those 2 or 3 particular bombs but i'm not going to hold him accountable as i feel even sam would have struggled. and even if he wouldn't have struggled - at least roberts is a cover FB who doesn't get steam-rollered to concede tries whereas roberts has the strength and frame to be able to defend better one on one.

i'd definitely like roberts to have more game time. if you remember the joy on his face when he scored the disallowed try last night you can see thats all he needs to get going. give him another few games i say but i'd imagine sam will be back at FB next week ready for half of wire to bounce over the tryline via him



sam may be the best talent to come out of wigan for a long time and a great young player - i do agree - but he's only doing at FB what roberts did last year, with slightly worse defence IMO!!!

I have been a huge fan of Roberts and defender of him in the past. When he played on the wing in his first season I thought that he faced a lot of unjustified criticism from some about his defence, when he was often left high and dry facing impossible overlaps, and I think that he often saved us defensively on that side. However on the wing he never showed the form that he shown at full back last season when he produced some of the best attacking full back play that I have ever seen from a full back at Wigan and when on form is the best full back at the club for me.

However last night he was very poor imo. I realise that he is coming back from injury but his confidence just looks shot to bits. He is very much a confidence player and when he isnt confident about what he is doing he can be quite poor at times. He was absolutely no where near those kicks last night and it wasnt the fact that he didnt catch them, all full backs have off days, but the fact that he didnt even seem to be trying to, he just looked scared to death. This lack of confidence is even seen in his passing. Last season when he was on form he was setting up tries for fun for Goulding, passing from left to right, but again last night, just like against St George, he fluffed a walk in try with a shocker of a pass. Even for the disallowed try of his there was a overlap and another easy walk in try but after his earlier fluffed attempt he just didnt want to pass it. His reaction when he did score though said a lot, you could almost sense the relief and belief returning. I also think a fully fit/confident Roberts would have easily scored from Gouldings kick. Like I said for me Roberts is the best full back at the club when on form but he is a long way off that at the moment. The only way that this will return is through more gametime and if he can have a cracker of a game I think the old Roberts may well return.

With a little bit of luck he could have had two tries last night.

Rubbish......again............

You get my vote!

Theres some right crap on this thread. Them bombs were hard to take, one got knocked on out of his hands and one hit the crossbar or was very close to the sticks. People who want him stringing up for that are being ridiculous.

The new Wigan scapegoat, remember Piggy and Pryce.

And of course O'Loughlin.

I said to my dad last night, if Pryce had done what Roberts did last night he would have been getting all kinds of abuse

I can't believe the people on here slagging roberts off.

Absolutely pathetic.

supporter
· n.
1 a person who supports a sports team, policy, etc.

For goodness sake guys, many went into this game expecting a loss!! Get behind the guy. He is a huge talent and i have no doubt that he would have ripped SL apart last year without the bloody awful injury.

Yes Brough's kicks were good but Roberts was far too tentative going for the catch. If the FB makes a good attempt and drops the ball because of a good kick then I will say well done to the kicker. But first I would expect to see the FB make a more positive attempt to catch the ball. Steve Hampson never hesitated like that!

True, but equally Hampo could never have scored those tries that Amos scored last year. The role of the fullback has taken on a much more attacking emphasis since those days.

Lol why is it when someone criticise a player or comments if he was poor some people on here start with the scapegoat BS?

Quite simply Amos was poor on Friday and failed to handle the tasks put in front of him.

I certainly don’t have a problem with him and I’d even pick him over Goulding on Friday as it think he’s a good winger. I just don’t think he’s a FB. Can’t see how that is a scapegoat thing?

People arent just criticising him though, they want him up before the firing squad!

What are peoples thoughts on if roberts doesnt recapture the form he had at the start of last season. Afterall everyone keeps going on about how good he was if but that was last year not this. If he doesnt get his form back i think he was average signing at best having only played 13 good games in 3/4 years

The thing is with Wigan fans it’s always black and white. You play well and they’ll love you and get behind you better than any set of fans in the world but if you mess up they’ll also let you know about it.

I guess it's just very high standards are set for the players of our great club. We expect our FB’s to be able to catch a bomb or our hookers not to be carrying extra weight.

Whilst Piggy was ok in his first season it didn’t compare to his 2nd season when he got the tough love from the coaches many of the fans called for. Roberts didn’t have a shocker on Friday and apart from the high bombs and the fluffed passes it would have been a decent return to the side. The fans wouldn’t have been on his back if he’d have catched those balls imo.

From what i have seen over the past few years, our safest full back at the club is actually Pat Richards.

Phelps, Tomkins and Roberts have all struggled under the high ball - i don't think i need to mention Mathers.

Amos had a nightmare under the high ball against Huddersfield and although i think Sam would of probably coped much better - i do think that he too would of struggled with one or two of those kicks.

As time goes on though you have to wonder where is long term future will be.

Karl pryce is the best player in the comp next



No scapegoat rubbish he was poor

I just wish he'd look when passing the ball. He didn't look when he threw it in touch against St George and he threw a bad pass against the Giants when we had a 2 man overlap.
I mean, who would play darts while not looking a the board?

Apart from that I think he played quite well.

Even Kris has levied gentle critism at Wigan supporters for being ultra black and white.

How many time do we see someone try something which if it comes off is ' a brilliant move resulting in a try' but when it doesn't come off the next time they are pilloried. We critise 1 man runs and expansive play in the same game.

Our 'job' at the ground is to support and lift the team - in tough games when 13-17,000 voices start chanting, you can almost see the team lift a gear. This was an away game where we were underdogs and we still won.

Many players are confidence players, because they beat themselves up for the slips, fumbles, misplaced kicks etc and we have seen many players over the years leave Wigan on a down then go on to do really well for other SL clubs.

As someone has pointed out earlier - please remember Amos is a COVER FB. Sam had some shockers last season but the more he played, and the more bombs he caught the better he got. Roberts will be practising so many bombs this week and will be better next time.

For me against Wire I would have Charnley and Amos on the wings and Sam at fullback, Carmont and Marsh at centre and drop Goulding. He was out of position a few times on Friday and had a gap and if he would have been quicker would have scored but had to kick it and Amos just missed out on scoring it.

Wigans defence was again so solid and the only try they conceded was a knock on anyway. Roberts played a major role in defence and I remember he saved a certain try, lying on his back and holding the player up; funny, thats the first mention of Robert's try saving tackle on the blog!!
Why do we always look for a scape goat, even when we win, sometimes players will make mistakes, was Roberts failure to catch a couple of superb bombs more of an issue than soemone (nameless) giving away penalty after penalty, did he do it on purpose (red card for stupid thuggish behaviour)? Roberts is playing out of position, not just because of injuries, but because of lack of discipline, give him a couple of games back on the wing, especially when the weather improves and we'll soon see why we were praising him last year.

ha ha ha







but very true