Pat Richards

[Fraggle]

wiganstripleL posted:
both players have improved 100%

You think? I didn't see last night's game so can't comment on that, despite planning to go, but whilst DV has definitely improved this year I can't say the same about Richards up 'til now. Against HKR he was absolutely woeful, one of the worst Wigan wing performances for a very long time, and he hardly sparkled against Salford (particularly in defence he was rubbish) or London either. Hopefully his apparently good performance last night will spur him on for the rest of the season, but in his Wigan career as whole so far he's alongside Jamie Ainscough in the "why did we bother signing him?" category.

[Welski]

Someone mentioned it in the Sky commentary on Friday night: As his kicking has improved it seems to have given him more confidence in open play.

I was one of those that knocked his kicking early on but he certainly seems to have put the work in. Most of his place kicks now have the power of his drop outs and his accuracy is so much better.

The team as a whole is making progress, as Barrett said it will take time for the new pivotal partnerships to gel. Once they do, the likes of DV and the wing men should see more quality ball coming their way.

The future's bright the future's .....

[Panchitta Marra]

Welski posted:
Someone mentioned it in the Sky commentary on Friday night: As his kicking has improved it seems to have given him more confidence in open play.

I was one of those that knocked his kicking early on but he certainly seems to have put the work in. Most of his place kicks now have the power of his drop outs and his accuracy is so much better.

The team as a whole is making progress, as Barrett said it will take time for the new pivotal partnerships to gel. Once they do, the likes of DV and the wing men should see more quality ball coming their way.

The future's bright the future's .....

How true it is I dont know, but my dad said to me that Brian Noble is never quick out of the blocks with ANY team he has coached, and that he gets it right as the season moves on. I so hope he is right, and it does look allot better than a few weeks ago. Major changes in critical positions, must take some controlling.

[DaveO]

I thought Richards played very well v Hull and looks to have gained in confidence.

His jump for the catch and try was very good. It was a great kick but if you are not playing with confidence you don't take a kick as cleanly as that out jumping the (admittedly smaller ) opposing player.

Dave

[Green]

He played IMO (at least from what i can recall) the best game hes played in a Wigan shirt. As people have said, his kicking has been spot on and thats probably given him a huge confidence boost. He deserves the praise we can give him, god knows its about time, but the real test will be to see if he can keep the perfromances up. If so, i think the odds of Wigan making a title challange will rise quite a bit.

[damien morrissey]

I am more than happy to see Pat play with more confidence and am pleasntly surprised at how accurate his kicking has become, i just wish he played with a bit more emotion come on lad smile.

[phibes]

It was good to see him get on the end of that kick. I saw him play for Wests on Sky several times before he came to us - and he was scoring tries like that on a regular basis.

[Welski]

phibes posted:
It was good to see him get on the end of that kick. I saw him play for Wests on Sky several times before he came to us - and he was scoring tries like that on a regular basis.

..and for us last sesaon in fact I seem to recall a few guys complaining that was all he had to his game!

[Doveoverdave]

DaveO posted:
I thought Richards played very well v Hull and looks to have gained in confidence.

His jump for the catch and try was very good. It was a great kick but if you are not playing with confidence you don't take a kick as cleanly as that out jumping the (admittedly smaller ) opposing player.

Dave

One trick pony.

[GeoffN]

Doveoverdave posted:

DaveO posted:
I thought Richards played very well v Hull and looks to have gained in confidence.

His jump for the catch and try was very good. It was a great kick but if you are not playing with confidence you don't take a kick as cleanly as that out jumping the (admittedly smaller ) opposing player.

Dave

One trick pony.

I'd say there was more to his game than that; his other try, where he stepped inside two defenders, was well taken too. I think his biggest problem so far has been a lack of confidence (and not having a particularly good centre partner), yet despite that he scored 13 tries for us last season (second only to Ashton with 14).