Play players in there own positions that means Richardson and Fages at half back the people suggesting Wilkin there I would say for goodness sake Saints lets try to progress the team
as good as he as been and lets face it when phrases like that are used there are reasons Wilkin should in the team now be being used not as a regular even never mind running the job .
http://www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/6538
Doesn't sound too good looking at this
It's all about opinions but my view is that it's something he does well more often that not. One of the guys I play with asked me if I fancied helping the coach at the uni he graduated from last year and one example I used of forwards running at the line was Wilkin against Huddersfield away last year. Don't get me wrong he's hardly Sculthorpe but at the very least he lets the halves have a look a bit wider.
That's a fair point tbh but you want to start the competition well. I'm just worried that by playing three halves we'll leave ourselves exposed in the middle but there's always going be a knock on effect when you lose your first choice 7. They'll probably try both in training and see what works best.
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
V
I don't know much about Richardson's defence but I'd be surprised if he wasnt comfortably better with ball and boot than both Wilkin and Lee based on the reviews I've read and the words of those who watch him regularly on here.
If he is adequate in defence he should surely be our 7 for the start of the season.
KC on Saints website.
.We will confirm the length of time and the nature of the injury when we know every aspect of it, because we don't want to pre-empt things too much.
"It isn't good for the immediate future, but it isn't season ending."
Humans are more concerned with having than being.
It makes a nice change to read an interview with Cunningham and find myself being satisfied with the entirety of it. Nobody can expect the club to know the severity of Smith's injury yet, but a simple update from the coach informing us that it's a bad one but not a season ending one is good enough right now. And, if the tackle was as bad as he claims then I support him fully for calling him out and making an issue out of it.
Not the disaster it initially seemed. Gives us a chance to look at Richardson, which I hope we do. If Richardson/Fages flop at least we have cap space (wiggle room, whatever that is) and we'll know early if we need another half. Frankly, if he misses the first 12 weeks, he misses nothing. Saints should make the 8s regardless and the worst case scenario is that we go out of the cup early if we get a tough draw. Obviously there could be complications but if Smith is anything, he's resilient. That's a big reason why we signed him.
If you look at the first 12 fixtures it takes us nicely to the end of April. There are a few games in there that we might lose regardless, but at least half of them are games we should win even with an un-tried half back partnership. I'd be shocked if we didn't win 7 of the 12, which would leave us in a half-decent spot and would allow us to know exactly where Richardson is in terms of development.
Richardson is the back up 7. The regular 7 is injured so let's get him in there with a run of games. If he does well this could help us in the long run.
How will we know if he's good enough if we don't play him?
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Of course.
We should be giving young talent the chance. In 1997 Goulding got a 12 match ban, we brought in a certain lee briers and look what happened, great play maker and went on to be sold after long established himself. Things happen when you take a chance, would we have signed long if Goulding hadn't gotten a ban? Who knows, but we should be using a scrum half if we have one rather than a make shift one. Other teams do it and are successful
Saints until i Die!!!!
You beat me to it, Briers was only about 18 and as thin as a rake when thrown in and also took the goal kicking responsibilities as well.
The lad is 20 for gods sake, forget all this nonsense about Wilkin, he offers nothing at half back but a standing pass and a hoof and hope on the last.
Give him 5 games, see how he grows into the shirt and if it's doesn't work then move things around, but we shouldn't move things around again when we haven't even tried the combination
First of all I wish Matty Smith all the luck in the world for a speedy recovery. I wouldn't have brought him back but that is irrelevant now. I hope Kez is brave with Richardson and it will be interesting if Farges can step up to the mark and be dominant he has had enough football for it to be a fair expectation.
The logical step would be to bring in Richardson. KC said last week that if one of our half backs got injured, he would use Richardson, however I doubt he expected this statement to be tested so early.
Richardon's 20 now, played a few years in the reserves, and (I assume) is a genuine halfback. He's the only out and out fit number 7 at the club, so it would be a bit mad not to give him a chance over a makeshift half back.
Hopefully Smith's injury isn't as bad as it seems. I am interested to see a reply of the tackle, and to see if it was as bad as KC suggests. It must be gutting for him to come back to us, and get seriously injured less than 40 minutes into his career. Many (including myself) may have criticised the signing, but I'm sure we would all love nothing more than to eat our words and Smith be a huge success, when he returns.
One thing I will say about Richardson is that on Sunday, he took one of those unexpected passes standing still that all half backs have nightmares over. He took a huge hit off their back rower for it but he bounced straight back up and ran straight at him again in the next set. That's the sort of attitude you want.
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
V
Exactly and we will never know if he can be a success in first team if we do not give him a chance.
Hard to get overly excited over one little clip but his play leading up to the Fages try was superb. He created an overlap with some neat footwork and then created the try with a precision kick. Encouraging to see that sort of confidence in him.
NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS
Not sure I agree with the sentiments that the first 12 weeks are irrelevant as we'll make the 8. That may be true, but it's about keeping pace with the top 4.
A few teams made the 8 last year with frankly no chance of making the 4.
Big blow for us, hope Richardson does a great job, good luck to the lad.
Gotta disagree with you on this one.
Richardson split his time between U19's and Reserves last year and very much lead the team around the pitch in both competitions. The only difference between 1st team and these lower grades is he'll get far less time & space on the ball to make decisions and he'll learn to adjust his game accordingly. People bring up his defence, but just because he isn't built like a brick ***house doesn't make him a bad defender. He's probably no worse than we've had with other half backs in the past.
I've watched him a few times in the lower grades and he always stood out, not just because of some of the plays he did but more because of his style. He's a natural half back with good instinct, he plays head up and plays what's in front of him not just to some set pattern. We saw a bit of that against Widnes in the lead up to Fage's try. The play was set up to go to the right on the last but he looked up and could see they had numbered up and were covering any kick through so he changed the play, came back inside and put the kick through to the post, completely taking their full back out of the game.
Its that instinctive play you need to stand out these days, and one reason why we don't have many natural halves in this country, we're too robotic and too fixated on set plays and set completions.
I'd say Williams play a lot on instinct for Wigan but I'm struggling to think of any other good young halves that do.
Let Richardson develop into that role while Smith is out injured, what have we go to lose. Yes he's probably going to come up with a few mistakes but I'd argue that we gain far more from having him in the team than without him. Playing Wilkin or Lee in the halves seriously hampers out attacking ability.