We seem to be masters at the long kick when a short one is needed & at the short, high one when a long raking kick along the ground is required.
Williams short kicking was better than than Brown, Widdop or Gale.
The latter three were all equally bad at putting their back three under pressure.
Sad to say for Williams truly to improve he needs to go to the NRL.
I think he'd be a wow over there.
He'll be good over here in a field of one.
Over there he would have so much competition that he couldn't help but get better.
That only leaves us to find a hooker, scrum half & full back.

A lot of that comes with younger players playing both codes throughout the year. The need for a kicking game to touch in Union is not there, and players playing both tend to go into how they usually play. Then on the other side good scrum halfs tend to be pushed into hookers roles these days, for a different game style.

These combined have resulted in a massive shortage of the out and out scrum half, with the game organsising, controlling, kicking game role they should have. This is why for that particular role in it's self, someone as disliked as Danny Brough is in a league of his own. Shame he is approaching the end of his career. A lot of coaches seem to thing they can ge by with a partnership of runners, rather than a supplier there.

I think that Watkins and Percival are our two best centres and as such they need to play. The Aussie centres are several classes above though (O'Neill was superb against NZ). I don't think anyone in the game currently or in the past would have dealt with Inglis yesterday. Sometimes you just have to hold your hand up and say - 'they were better'.

Watkins does need to work much harder at this game though, because Inglis showed him what he should be aiming for. Watkins has the athleticism and physique to be a much better player than he is. He could start by learning to pass the ball

Williams could be a very fine half back...if he is going to move though, he needs to go soon as he will soon be (if not already) the best half in SL and will be able to rest on his laurels which is only natural, where he really needs to be in the best league improving to their highest level which is clearly several rungs above where we are.

The rate he seems to be putting on weight though suggests he could be our next ball handling prop in a couple of years.

I take your point but i'm still really struggling to think of too many opportunities Watkins had to create anything for his winger over the entire three games. I too think he is frustrating and has not fulfilled his potential but i also think people have been overly critical of him this series, he just hasn't really been given the space and opportunities to shine and has had to feed off scraps for the most part.

Watkins was facing arguably the best centre in RL so no surprise he didn't create much.
How many passes did Sarginson give Hall?
Percival couldn't pass to Hall because he wasn't able to collect the ball in the first place.
Watkins needs space & time, something the Aussies don't allow.

And I suppose to be fair I don't think anyone would have coped particularly well with Greg Inglis who is quite possibly one of the greatest to ever play the game.

We didn't cope well with Inglis as a team imo. When the ball was going in his direction the whole of our right flank was back peddling instead of getting in his face. We gave him far too much respect and it bit us hard early in the second half.

I do nt think that Watkins runs good enough lines. Whenever he does he is so much more effective. He stands too flat and doesn't take the ball at pace often enough. He has to find some space and run at the gap on the inside shoulder.

I would question the tactic of putting Watkins, who had been defending well at centre, into the second row of the scrum which then left Widdop in his place who then failed to defend what became a crucial try.

That wasn't the only poor use of Watkins in a scrum in the tournament. Vs New Zealand we had a scrum about 30m away from our own line and Watkins is in the scrum whilst Tom Burgess was stood as first receiver just running the ball in run of the mill style instead of using a scrum move to try and use Watkins.

Perfectly highlights the non existent use of him in this tournament.