As confirmed by JH in the Star.
Never been overly impressed by Fages. Imperious in his first few games for us but that’s about it. I see him as a good lad to have in a salary capped sport but not a lot more.
As confirmed by JH in the Star.
Never been overly impressed by Fages. Imperious in his first few games for us but that’s about it. I see him as a good lad to have in a salary capped sport but not a lot more.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
IMO very underrated player. Whilst I think DR is a good player, he lacks any tackling skills and needs a bit of an ego check. Both Coote and Paulo in an interview stated the player they were most impressed with at Saints was Fages. (Also mentioned Knowles). JH says he has had a great pre season. We missed him last year in both semifinals. I for one am happy for him to start. It’s all about opinions though.
Humans are more concerned with having than being.
I should imagine Fages will get a few games due to Richardson not being up to 100% prep wise. Then if Fages plays very well he keeps the shirt with Richardson waiting in the wings, competition for places is no bad thing. We probably have something similar with our backrowers.
I agree. In my opinion Fages could be better than Richardson if his game improves. They both have potential that hasn’t been realised yet. They both have faults in their game and they are both young players. It’s about who responds best to coaching over the closed season and who is injury free
When they first signed Fages wasnt he heralded as having the potential to be Saints scrum half for the next decade?
I think Richardson has a higher 'ceiling' than Fages, but also has more development to do in certain key aspects of his game.
At the moment, Fages is the more rounded player (although I think we lose that bit of maverick ability that Richardson brings)
My feeling with Fages is that he doesn’t have a half back’s instincts, and that’s something that‘s very difficult to coach into a player IMO. It’s all very well looking good in preseason, but making split second decisions in the cut and thrust of a big game is another matter.
However, it’s easy to forget that he’s only 24, so you never know what might happen.
I get the point about Richardson not being picked to tackle, but that is different than being able to. Longy developed his style to be effective, hitting the likes of Keith Senior on the thigh and targeting one leg. Richardson was a major target for opposition back rowers at the back end of the season and his defensive frailties were exposed. Greenwood ran over him for fun in the last game against Wigan.
Fages is a more effective defender and with Lomax and Coote doing most of the playmaking, I think JH has made Fages the pivot, to simply catch, fix defenders and pass.
I haven’t really seen Fages play there so it’s only guess work but I think playing scrum half will suit him more than playing stand off at Saints. One of his main weaknesses in my opinion is his wider vision when he attacks the line, he’s very much a player who sees what’s directly in front of him rather than what’s around him and you can’t have that at 6. At 7 that’s not as big a problem because he’s got players out-side him who’ve got that vision. Fages’ job will be to get the ball to Lomax, Coote and the out-side backs and direct the forwards around and he’s more than capable of doing that. There’s a question mark over his kicking but that was going to be a concern anyway no matter who played 7 and hopefully he’s spent every day working on that over the winter. His short kicking game is relatively good anyway and I think Coote will do a lot of the long kicking.
It’s a long season and I’m sure Richardson will get his chances but I do think we needed to try something different in that position.
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
V
I'm pleased with this to be honest. As I have said before, Wigan love Richardson playing at 7 as they target his defence. The try that Escare scored when they beat us in September was a planned move that came off the back of Richardsons poor defence. They knew that Morgan wouldn't trust Richardson, so he came in off his centre, Greenwood kept his hands high and offloaded to Escare who came round the back of him. Thats just one example.
Fages is a tough cookie who'll put his body on the line.
Agree with all of this. All well saying Richardson's primary duty isn't defence, but defence tends to be important in any position in rugby league. When an individual has a big deficiency in an area of their game it tends to be a problem and more do if it's tackling. When Richardson whiffed at tackling that Warrington player in the SF it was a realisation of most people's fears that this weakness would be exposed at the most inopportune time; big matches.
I'm not totally bought into Fages as I'd like to see his game management in the matches where he won't be affored the space to use his footwork to get out of situations where he should have gmade better decisions but as Reacher says it isn't in doubt he put's his body on the line for his team mates.
I recall saying last year Richardson had the look of someone who was playing his first match 30-odd times (to nick Shane Warne's quote). At times you just got a feel that he needed to learn more form mistakes as just wasn't doing so often enough for whatever reason.
He could be a good little mid field ball runner when opposition forwards are tiring. He could go well at 7. With Wilkin no longer there and Richardson out our last tackle options will be interesting. How is Fages kicking game? I can’t recall too many games where he’s been the tactical kicker.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
That's a good point. With Coote on one edge and Lomax on the other, at 7 he isn't going to be dealing with 3-on-2 situations and the like. If he can play square, provide clean ball for the players outside him and contribute a bit more to the kicking game than he has in the past then it might suit him better.
Agree totally. For the record I rate DR it’s just he needs to get better at tackling even though as has been said he’s not in the team to tackle, which I don’t agree with totally. I might be wrong but I actually think his tackling issues are more about bottling tackles. You never see him square on in a tackle he always seems to grab at the ball carrier as he is passing. As I said I think he can be an excellent player, but ATM it’s Fages for me.
Humans are more concerned with having than being.
Fages would be my 1st choice every week
Fages is currently a better player than Richardson (wouldn’t be hard) but he isn’t a halfback. That being said I think we’ll see better, more conservative last tackle plays because Fages isn’t an off the cuff player and for me he is a better passer of the ball than Richardson. Whilst Fages’ size is an issue in defence he is certainly better in that department and will at least put his body on the line. Once Richardson sorts that side of his game out (he’s nowhere near on the basis of the Hull game) then I’d rather give him a chance because he is actually a scrum half but against Wigan especially Fages is the better option. That being said I don’t think either are the answer and we’ll be needing a scrum half for next year.
I agree with you on this.
When Fages has played in the halves previously I’ve felt his decision making and execution hasn’t been good enough.
I recall a couple of seasons ago he gave hospital after hospital pass to Taia as if he didn’t know what to do/couldn’t create anything. A lot of these balls went to the floor.
I hope he can prove me wrong and smash it this season, I’d love him to do well. I’d also love Richardson to do well though and feel he showed more potential last year than Fages has ever shown at Saints.
Thoughtful and informative post, as usual. If I remember correctly, Fages was signed as a scrum half but he has never really had a run in that position as far as I’m aware. I think Sean Long rated him highly as a scrum half when we signed him.
I’m really looking forward to this season and we will see how much our young players have learned in the off season
Sammut has just received a 2 match penalty notice so that’s him out of the derby.
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I like Richardson and think he will become a very good player for us.Big ask for him at his age to play all last season and not to expect a dip of form etc. Me personally I would have signed an experienced stand off to partner him in the halves for this season and put Lomax to full back. Not sold on Fage at scrum half I think he lacks the all round vision of a good scrum half. Hope I'm proved wrong .