2 years ago today Tom scored a HT against Widnes in the Under 19's in a 38-26 win.
Another 4 tries for Tom yesterday, great to see the club saw the potential in him and got him signed up on a long deal.

The sky really is the limit for this kid.

Trinity Heritage is focusing on him at the moment.
He's on 22 tries in 27 appearances. 81.48 % strike rate.
That compares very well to the best in the game. Hope he keeps it up.

Should be a shoe in for one of the England wing spots with Manfredi on the other. I'm praying Bennet doesn't have any Amber and blue tinted spectacles like his predecessor.

I don't think he'll get in this time round. Unless we get in to the 8 have a run in the big games. Seeing him in big pressure games will be the key for him, and I'm not sure the rest of the team are quite there yet.
But World Cup is a decent target.

Made us look better than we were yesterday - the lad really is the whole package; strength, speed, agility and most of all, a great reader of the game. Those wingers tries take more doing than it sometimes appears, and the decision to go through, around, under or over is made in a fraction of a second. The most exciting player at BV in many a season.

As for England - too soon in my view; exactly the kind of thing that could be a speed-bump in his development. If he carries on at this rate though, he'll be nailed on for future selection.

He's a match winner, you can't put a price on that - helped save our blushes yesterday.

Schofield doesn't see him in good enough form to make it into the current form team



but a half back in a team propping up the league does

Charnley leaving bothers me. Although MC has said he's not for sale, eventually you get a price you can't turn down.

Agree with the above, especially your point about England. Saying that I think it'd do his confidence & game the world of good to be in and around the England Squad this year.

Is this the same Johnstone that some of our forum experts criticised the club for first giving him a four year contract and made it an important announcement rather than a new signing.

Don't forget they wanted to put him out on loan as well

.

On the field, yes I'll give you that but he isn't going to get many modelling jobs with a face like that.

P S, don't tell him I said so.

Doubt he'd get a modelling job, it takes him too long to do his hair

Bit harsh, just because all in Cas look uncanny alike

good looking kid when donned up, that means nice clothes and all that

Serious question mate, which Wakey forum experts criticised the club when Tom's contract extension was announced because it wasn't what I remembered. So I went & read the thread back when it was announced & there was nothing but positive noises. Unless there's another thread I missed.

Read for yourself. [urlhttp://viewtopic.php?f=33&t=590348&start=140[/url

This at the time from jonh

=#BF0080"Personally I don't see it. I hope I am wrong but I have seen many better prospects come and go without making an impact.
For me he is decent at most facets of the game, but I don't see anything that sets him apart as special.
Comparing him with Ellis is ridiculous. I think it is more an indication of how poor the pathways at Trinity have been for a long time that gets fans so excited about this deal.
Hopefully however he proves me wrong."

But then he's a Wigoon fan lol.

He's a decent looking lad is our Tom. Half the young lasses in the East stand start drooling when he appears that's
for sure!

Tom has come on leaps and bounds since that point so I wonder if Jonh still has the same opinion now???

To be fair jonh has held his hands up and admitted he got it wrong. It could all still go pear shaped for the lad but its looking good for him to realise his potential. This does show that kids need the exposure of top flight SL to go on and take the step up to that next level. If they're held back they lose valuable development time they never get back. Same can be said for Jowitt.

to me jowitt has been a revelation since he came into the team the most naturally gifted fullback we have had in years showing maturity way above his age

TJ is a fair bit further down the line than MJ and is pretty much the finished article as a winger. However he's played many more games in a slightly less technical position so fairs fair. He lacks the natural pace of TJ but then most do.

Funny thing is they both share/shared the same relative weakness as each other in their early games. TJ struggled to tackle his man on the outside for much of last season, an issue he has now sorted and vital for an ouside back. Jowitt's only weakness for me is that he doesn't always make much of an attempt to tackle players crashing over the line. A few times he's pulled away from tackling the big lads running through. Now don't get me wrong I'm not doubting his bravery, from expeience I can tell you it's the hardest thing a FB has to do. There is also a fine line between brave and suicidel on these tackles and it takes far more experience than MJ has at the moment to call it right. It's not vital as 90 times out of a hundred they fail but just occasionally they dislodge the ball or stop the grounding and that's part of the fine line between good and great. I'm really being pedantic here but no 18 year old was ever perfect. At 18 and 20 respectively this is in no way a criticism and I wouldn't expect Max to be even close to the finished article just yet, though he's doing his best to get there ASAP.

Mathers spent his entire career never having mastered that particular aspect of the fb role...

Very few do, personally think it's the ultimate speciality of a FB, it's a mixture of supreme courage and brilliant technique. Matty Holland was really good at it as was Andrew Leeds. I can't think of a current English FB who does it particularily well, if Max masters that one his international future is assured.

Hardaker ??

He's a decent F/B but nothing special as shown in the NZ test series.