Sometimes you have to credit the kick, and Saints' kicking game was in a different stratosphere to ours tonight. Walsh could've played in his suit.

How many games do you want to give him? 5 more? 10? How many times does he have to be cack before we ship out? He is yet to put it one, ONE performance that says 'I am a super league player and I am good enough to play next week'. Every time he plays he looks a hundred miles off the pace, and like someone who deserve to disappear back to second grade rugby as soon as humanly possible.

Every single one of Hardaker, Watkins, Stevie Ward, Sutcliffe, Singleton, Walters & Robbie Ward came into the side as unknowns - every single one of them put in at least one display that said they were worthy of getting picked.

Golding's had the same opportunity as the likes of Tom Bush, Michael Coady - more opportunity than George Elliott got.

Next time Hardaker can't play, Ash Handley (you know, the guy people were saying shouldn't get dropped for Tom Briscoe) should come in at FB ahead of Golding - shockingly, exactly the same as in the 19s, where they can recognise that Handley is going to make it and Golding isn't.

I thought the lad did well tonight. The thread title is baffling.

Did he shag your bird?

...that might be it

As I was reading through the first page I was about to ask the same question.

May as well copy my post from the other thread...:

I can't say I've noticed Golding much before tonight, but on tonight's showing he's not a bad player. Pretty agile and came up with a few tough catches. If the attacking team is on your line and get the kick right, as a fullback there will be times where even if you do all you can, you're still going to concede a drop out. Fullback is probably the toughest position to play if you aren't used to the standard, because you are constantly isolated, which means every mistake is glaringly obvious. The fact that none come to mind (bar the kick off, where the blame was shared between 3 of them) is proof enough that for his age he's not too bad a player.

Another thing is, we had Walsh, Burns, Roby and Wilkin all kicking tonight. For territorial kicks, a fullback will (ideally) set up on the kicker's outside foot, because kickers are always going to try and avoid kicking across their body. The option of 4 kickers means your back 3 can't really do this which puts a lot more pressure on them. Especially with Wilkin on the blind side on the left, there were times where Briscoe would have to stay in the defensive line as a result and it was Golding and Hall covering the width of the pitch. That is a difficult task for any fullback, nevermind a 19 year old who's got very little first grade experience.

What TOMCAT and heisenberg said.

Utter tripe from someone who must have been watching the game through the bottom of a pint pot.

I think you are being hard on the lad. I am not certain at this stage if he will make the grade or not. As the game progressed I thought he improved. So he does not warrant your criticism. One or two senior players were off form so that did not help matters.

Totally agree with this.

Golding's problem is that no amount of great play can make up for bad hair. It's a fanbase-killer.

grew in confidence as it went on, had a decent game.