The thing is with the 2 is that neither are great in the air... I haven't seen Roberts catch a high bomb (even from our team) yet this season and as for Ainscough we all know that subject.

Thing is with Roberts, he's never had a solid centre (Gleeson now injured, before that he has had Pryce, Goulding, Bailey and Phelps) unlike Pat who has had pretty much 2 solid seasons playing with Carmont inside of him. Also, I can't recall Roberts needing to finish a move off or actually do some form of Wing Finishing from a few yards out or slightly further. Vs Salford Richards scored 3 walk-ins and Roberts hasn't had 1 this year. Same with Ainscough, he has had to work for most of his tries.

It just shows that we are far stronger down the left going forwards than we are down the right. This could be down to a number of things: 1) The halfbacks arent good enough passing from left to right, 2) the centre isn't good enough, 3) We don't have confidence down that wing.

Half backs are the problem. Gleeson has proved he's a top class centre throughout his career.

Sooner have the all Wigan Gleeson Ainscough partnership develop.

Bottom line is, Ainscough came through the youth system at little cost, Roberts was brought in from the other side of the world and given a 4 year deal at 28, at probably a good cost.

Considering all the factors, I'd take Ainscough any day of the week.

I've made my feelings clear a few times about roberts i think his positonal play is kind of shocking and it got showed last night

If you look at ainscough fair enough his defence needs quite a bit of work on but the lad was top try scorer in the league, scored 4 tries and then got dropped wtf!!!!

Imo i think we should play ainscough and in defence switch him and (pat/phelps) honestly i really think it would work and he can just improve the more games he plays

So who is?



Watch it again, Fox is chasing him before the ball is picked up as he is on his way back to scoop the loose ball, hardly the head start you speak of.


When?

when you signed roberts i came on here and said he was an ok signing a soild nrl player but by no means a gun player which i got totally hammered for!!

i think roberts is ok and will get better in the coming seasons!! under a different coach you may get the very best out of him.

i think some of you expect too much from him!!

Thank you for someone remotely seeing the point in my original post.

When I started the thread my point was pretty much this.
I was trying to explain the dissapointment in Roberts' pace. Regardless of whether Fox is the fastest in the league, when people had been sticking up for Roberts while he was getting a load of stick everyone had been saying his shining atttribute was his electric pace. And having not seen him in the NRL to know if this was true or not I felt a big dissappointment when he made that break.

What I was trying to suggest is that if Roberts isnt going to burn everyone in the clear like it was being made out then why not use Ainscough who has better strength and other alternative attributes. If both are going to get run down either way it wont hurt trying something a little alternative for once like using Ainscoughs Agility, Strength and Aggression and some more of the Home Grown passion that was seen yesterday.

The fact is, is that Roberts is a much better all round player than Ainscough. Also the way Phelps is playing at the moment, it is right that Ainscough is not getting into the team. I don't know what some of the fans are on about when they are fuming when Ainscough doesn't get picked, what would you prefer, Nobby to do what he is doing now, by dipping him in and out of the team every so often or play him every game under the pressures at a top SL club and potentially ruin him, e.g. Kevin Penny.

Roberts is getting better with every game, a vast improvement from the way he was playing like at the start of the season. If we give him enough ball, he is a very dangerous player for us. If Roberts was on the left wing, as has been said by a number of posts, he would easily be our top scorer.

People need to get off Roberts back for once. Yesterday he set up two tries with two pieces of very good play and made the most linebreaks in the Wigan team. If people think Roberts did not have a decent game other than his mistake for their first try, then there is no hope for him through the eyes of some of our fans.

Your kidding? Briscoe was keeping up with Tomkins waiting for the offload from Roberts.

Roberts played well I thought, alright he dropped that kick, but he could do nothing about the second try and he did well to gift Richards a try. He also took a cracking little flick from Phelps and that could have been another try had someone come with him, he was never going to beat Briscoe in that much space.

I like Roberts, I think he's a good signing for us, he's just unlucky that he will never win the majority of the fans over 'cos he's infront of Ainscough atm.

I agree.

Nail on head, with sledgehammer like force.

What games have you been watching because it can't have been any Wigan games with him in the side. Ainscoughs attack is better than Roberts and their defensive abilities are pretty similar. I fail to see how a player who scores fewer tries, makes fewer clean breaks, makes fewer tackle busts and so on can be considered the "much better"player.

He clearly has not got the pace he once had either.



Nobby isn't dipping him in and out of the team, he just picks established players regardless of form. There are only 10 games left. Ainscough could play the lot of them and not be burnt out. Noble is running out of games to to dip him in and out of the team. How many games do you think Ainscough should get before the end of the season? He is on course for none IMO because Noble will IMO pick Roberts unless injured regardless of form as he does with Riddell.



No he isn't. He offers no more now that he did at the start of the season.



He was given plenty of opportunities v Salford and he failed to take them. Calderwood was apparently not the right type of winger for us because he needed the service to score tries and was not capable of making his own opportunities. It looks like Robrets is the same except I have yet to see anything to suggest if he was given the service he would make use of it.



He has to offer more than he is. I do not expect him to be super human in defence. He is a winger and so provided he isn't a complete liability in defence then that is OK but that has to be balanced by offering a threat on attack and he just doesn't.

If we had no one else we would no doubt have to play him regardless but we do and its about time Ainscough got another run in the side.

Dave

I know and speak to a few current SL coaches and staff. With all of them, I have had this discussion and they have all unanimously agreed that Ainsough is not ready yet and Roberts is the better player. I have my opinion and you have yours, but I seem to have the point of view that is the same as coaches at the top of the game.

Your mother must be so proud...

...everyone is entitled to their opinion. And just because a "top" coach thinks so does not necessarily make it right

and yes as I said, he has his opinion and I have mine. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter.

i remember watching fox at wakefield against us. he looked very sharp and quick then. wondered whether he would suit us but KR came in for him. good honest player. cant be many quicker than him.

Obviously Roberts has not scored as many tries as Ainscough and you want your wingers to be scoring tries. Ainscough though does need to be gradually brought into the team as is being done (I just think that this should have started last season rather than this one), Roberts is not a youngster who needs easing in so if someone is to play the majority of games it should be him.

Whilst he is not topping the try scoring charts he is doing no worse in terms of tries to games than Calderwood and Colbon did before him and he is as many have said at a disadvantage chances wise as he plays on the right. He may or may not have scored the number of tries that Ainscough and Richards have if he played on the left we will never know whether he would. However we have predominately attacked down the left in the last few seasons due to the presence of Hock and so the left side benefitted. With the likely loss of Hock from our nal we should now see a more varied distribution in our point of attack. This will aid Roberts and Gleeson should it occur.

Whilst he has not scored many tries Roberts has made a good number of breaks so is capable of finding gaps. I fully expect that once we start to attack on the right as well as the left that Roberts will show why we signed him. Yes he has had two thirds of a season but while our play is skewed to the left he isn't seeing an even share of the chances. Let him have a fair crack of the whip before you start to beat him with it.

I think Amos is worse than Calderwood. His positioning is woeful. Riddell is also a seemingly bad buy from downunder. His belly is embarassing.

The main ray of hope last night was Sam Tompkins and MM.

How dare you talk sense!

People seem to come on here for an argument not discussion, so you're point was always going to be missoncruded for that very reason.

New word. I like it.

Well you said Fox isn't the fastest and clearly don't understand how getting caught by the fastest man in SLi sfar less of an issue than if say Nick Fozzard would have caught him, but hey don't let that get in the way of you slagging someone off.

I fully expect you to duck the question, but here goes again - Who do you think is the fastest player in SL.



Hmm, perhaps when Roberts picked up the loose ball and Fox caught him 60m later.

On loan but Kevin Penny. That ok keyboard warrior?

So you would have been okay with Penny catching Roberts?



You love to bang that drum dont you