Golding is not good enough at this level. He offered nothing in attack, and looks relieved to just catch the ball in defence. If Zak gets injured we have no decent cover there.

Just out of curiosity what, other than yardage from kick returns, do you think Zak offers in attack comparatively?

Not about Goulding, as you wouldn't expect that of him, but if you watch Zak this year he is managing the attacking line and calling out moves. Not to mention his passing, which people still seem blind to see.

I see that. I'm really just trying to defend Golding as I don't think he did anything wrong in attack.

Why would anyone expect a youngster, who was just 19 on the match day, be every bit as good as a seasoned player who is currently at the top of his game? Golding has very little SL experience and that was in matches where the team were out of form or disrupted by injuries. He has just recovered from a long term back injury and once more is parachuted into a patched up and below form squad missing 6 senior players to play against the rested and revived Champions. I mean really whats going on?

Golding made a shaky start but so did did whole team. However he showed his mettle and went on to be one of the best performers IMO especially considering he was given a severe test by the Saints. He made several important tackles, in general got himself in good positions and mopped up a lot of stuff on our line safely, he backed up well, nearly scored a try and with Watkins like bit of footwork got us in the position for Achurch's score.

To set the record straight he made 15 tackles with no misses, he made 5 tackle busts (2nd best in team) and 1 clean break from 16 carries all of which are the equal of, or better than Hardaker's averages and Zak is currently justifiably considered the best full back in SL.

It's threads like this where you have to remind yourself that not everyone exists on the internet like this Bellend. He's 18 FFS you **** and add to that was far from the worst player on the pitch.

One thing that I noticed (and was commented on with frustration by people around me) was his tendency to stop when he had caught the ball on kick returns. He would run until their pack closed in on him and then stop and almost prepare for the impact rather than continuing to make progress forward. The other thing was he definitely ambled a bit for kick returns to the empty places on the pitch - he didn't look like he was busting himself to get there (like Zak does) and consequently Golding either was quickly set up on when he did get to the ball or was in the general area he needed to be but not totally set to catch it and thus caught it either slightly awkwardly or after it had bounced.

The bit where the saints k/o went straight out seemed similar - AG should have busted himself to be set in the right position to take that, but was not proactive enough to do so and failed.

Someone else should have also quickly taken charge of it and their failing to do so was down to them individually. Part of Hall / Cuthbo / Garbutt failing to take charge of it was (I have no doubt) because had Zak been there he would have been more proactive and got himself in the right place to catch it, therefore preventing the balls-up which followed.

He did get better as the game went on though, I agree with that. For me, on that performance I think to write him off is harsh though conversely to say he was good is over-the-top the other way. As with the majority last night, overall it was a bit of a non-performance; a '5 out of 10'er if this was a newspaper report...

There was any amount of things wrong with last night's performance but I'd need to read pretty far down the list before I got to Golding's performance. However, if I was to go through a list of candidates for most ridiculous post of the year I wouldn't have to read many before I found the opening one of this thread.

Pin it up with the 'mcdermott go' thread. Can't remember how that one turned out. A large section of sports fans are morons, seems to go with the territory.

You might want to watch what precedes Achurch's try. Then again, even if you did I'm not sure you'd have the ability to understand what you're watching.

As others have said, he grew in confidence as the game went on and had a reasonable game. His positioning at the back wasn't great but as he's just turned 19 and has a handful of games there that will come.

Golding will be at Leeds for year's to come. It's "fans" like World's Apart that should f**k off to some other club, not talented you lads like Golding.

People who expect an 18 year old kid to be a superstar. Clueless.

No errors, or missed tackles according to the stats.

More tackles, more metres, more tackle breaks and as many clean breaks as Quinlan too. Given Quinlan has played 25 NRL matches and maybe 10 Super League matches, Golding compares pretty well.

I think we'll really see Golding progress in the next 12 months. I've seen him out and about a few times, and although he's scrawny he has a decent frame, so I think has he develops, and adds some timber he'll be a very good player. I think the club view him more as a halfback in the long term, but whatever position he ends up playing all the raw materials are there for a very good player IMO.