Fullback: Phelps or Richards?

[GeoffN]

I thought Phelps looked pretty good in defence, and more dangerous (and versatile) than Pat in attack tonight.

The problem is, of course, who to drop if Pat went back onto the wing. Ainsy (our leading try scorer by a mile!) surely has to stay, and Roberts showed a big improvement tonight. Pat's height is an advantage on the wing, both in attack and defence...

Thoughts?

[ian b]

Richards at fullback surely

[Mr Stu]

even though phelps did well i would still go for richards, still IF phelps can be consistant and play like he played tonight then he will be useful this season

[cpwigan]

Richards. We missed his kicking both place and out of hand. VGood defensively and would have taken the kick Pryce scored from. Phelps was better at FB than he has been on the wing or at centre though. Wire signed the wrong player.

[Mr Stu]

they got our 4th choice full back and they reckon they got the better deal

[gpartin]

Richards every time.

[warrior till i die]

well phelps has done well to put himself in contention for a while! rumour has it that it wont be his first game as richards may be out for 6 weeks!

hopefully amos keeps practising his conversions because he looked good from the touchline before!

[lucky 13]

I think we have been just happy to see Richards at the back when the other option was Mathers!! Phelps offered more coming forward than Pat he links play better like Webb does.
Pat is solid and when you have seen Mathers play you are just on the edge of your seat waiting for the mistake .
With all this said I think in the modern game we need a little more from fullback than what Pat gives a mixture of both players would be one very good fullback. What does me is how people think Phelps is a waste of a quota spot towards some of the players we have he is probably on the least money shows more effort and on performance up to now is better value than Smith,Pig,Roberts and Baily .
Also his better games are when he is involved, out wide he gets exposed in the middle he just needs the chance, for one thing ''and to me it's important'' he has a spot on attitude, something for which many of his more illustrious colleagues could learn from.

[cpwigan]

His better games Lucky are when he does not have to tackle and sorry but he is a wasted quota spot.

[lucky 13]

His better games Lucky are when he does not have to tackle and sorry but he is a wasted quota spot.

I think a lot of the quota spots are not filled well Richards and Carmont are fine and Fekka does a good job but all the others are below average at the very best. It seems to me that Phelps gets unfairly put down, I'm not saying he is great but he seems to be here to play not for some holiday like most, I would see others leave before him .
Do you think Roberts is playing well? he looks uninterested,no doubt he has talent but his attitude is crap or at least appears to be give me Phelps attitude every time.
Smith may as well not be here, I wish he was the player of a couple of years back but he's not Phelps is a dfensive titan towards Tiggy Smith .
Baily offers no more than Hansen and less than Hock,Tomkins and Lockers but he is in all likely-hood the highest cap wise and finds his way onto the team sheet, if Tomkins played tonight he may have found a magic play something Bails can not.
I was glad when Piggy was signed but I think he thought it would be party time and easy over here, when he wakes up gets some fitness I may revert to my original thoughts on him. Phelps played around 30 mins in the hooker role but in tat time showed at least as much in skill and miles more in fitness and will.
Phelps shows me more than all the above maybe because he tries and actually wants to play to his best, you may call his defense but the lad has heart,and because of it that area can be worked on, you could lose all the above players without taking quality away from the team.
Lulu is a good player but is not the half capable of leading us round I think he must go to 9 if he is to stay.
Then you look at our own players,we are two props short Fielden is non existent Coley as played OK for the last couple of weeks but that is still not good enough for our first line forwards . Fekka does his job very well but he is still not used to his full potential, Prescott needs a little more game time but even so is streets ahead of Fielden, O'carol was the best prop for me all season but found himself in reserve grade and injured in the process :conf:
Maclorum may need to be let out on loan he is a solid lad but the skills he had when he first came into the team seem to have left him or have not been developed, which may not lie entirely with him.
Our back line looks like its shaping up still think we need a fullback who can link play better than Pat, we need a organising half to partner Sam not a short term fix and depending on the rest of the year maybe a center to replace Carmont, Pryce could be the player if he gets fit.
We need one/two props if we could offload Fielden I would Coley to go also. Lulu may be worth a shout at hooker but unless we see a fit Pig that is another area of concern.
Like you stae we should not need to look for a backrow forward for the next few years but I still feel we are 3 or 4 players short of really chalenging lose the average imports and replace them with a couple of the very best top quality players .
Look at Saints tonight they have some very average players, they also have some quality the core of the team has been together for a while, KC is the best SL player I have seen. They seem to be better organised than us in all areas,we still got to them and out played them for large parts of the game . The likes of Hargreaves Clough ext would not improve us but as part of the set up they have they look good SL players we have a lot of youngsters we could bring in to do similar jobs and then have enough cap left for real quality .
We are not far off but things need to be done .

New coach
Feilden must go
Coley must go
Bailey must go(even though I like the lad)
Pig Must get fit
Smith must go
Roberts must improve(I think he will)
Lulu to hooker or go.
Sam T must be given time and a good long term organiseing partner at half.
We need 1 / 2 props
Idealy a top full back although Richards is good enough if the rest of the team is set up.

And breath