Atkins is still the limited player that he's always been. The difference now is that he is playing to his few strenths very well in a very good Wolves team. In fact his strenth is his strenth. If he had got more involved earlier on in the GF the result might have been different.

Disagree. His defence is hugely improved, even when alongside Riley who is defensively pretty weak. He also used to struggle to create enough opportunities for his winger (or whoever else is around) and I think that is also a much improved aspect to his game and one which sets him above the likes of Yeaman, Welham and Cudjoe in my view.

Cudjoe is far superior in relation to skills and creating for others.

I agree with you on the defence though. Atkins has improved that side of his game immensely, and for that reason added to his natural powerful game, he is rated one of the top centres.

I must have watched a different Ryan Atkins to everyone else then because from what I've seen for Warrington and for England Atkins' defence is still pretty woeful. I've just had a quick look at his stats and he missed 40+ tackles last year and his positioning at times is terible, the Exiles game is probably the best example of this. His offload game and his hands have improved out of sight since going to Warrington. I think he didn't have one try assist to his name in his last season at Wakey now at Warrington Riley scores a lot of tries thanks to Atkins.

I do agree that Cudjoe is a better player, he's a great athlete who runs good lines, and his defence has improved a fair bit his performance for England against Australia. He needs to learn how to use his footwork to create space for his winger, but he's improving season by season.

I've always rated Cudjoe from when I first saw him play full back at the Floodlite 9’s a few years ago. Defensively he’s not the best although this side of his game has vastly improved in the last year or so but going forward with ball in hand he’s far more creative than Atkins.