Meli did a Meli! But, when he does he sure does do it in style!

I'm not a particular fan of his BUT surely this one match shouldnt reflect the season he has had, which IMO has seen him be the most improved!

I said on another thread we'd do as well playing Armstong on the wing as Gardner.

Whilst he finishes strongly close to the line, he does lack the pace of a decent winger. He also had a purple patch around 2006 when he was virtually mistake free under the high ball - this seems to have deserted him.

Meli, while he does make some monumental gaffs, I hold in higher regard, he does return well and can finish and create oppotunities unlike the Arrow from Barrow. Let's face it, Sully was equally inept if you kicked a ball at him. The real problem for me is that if you took Meli out of our team, we'd be scoring even less points than we are now.

So, if we were to have a back line of Wellens, Lomax, Gidley, Wheeler, Armstrong, Pryce & Eastmond - would we be doing better or worse?

Maybe a Freddieesque venture to the 2nd row wouldn't be a bad call.

But Sully could finish from anywhere on the pitch. Neither Meli nor Gardener are even close to Sullivan in terms of classic winger finishing.

Had Sully had Gardner's opportunity on Saturday it would have been a try.

People are blaming Meli for making mistakes then suggesting we have a look at Ainscough.

ainscough has potential and coached correctly could be a massive asset, Meli has had his chances, many many chances but he just keeps making critical mistakes.

I've said this before I think he would be better in the centre/second row with soliola where he couldnt be targeted by kicks like he is now

As a non-Saints fan, Meli is error prone in defence, but is at least a threat with ball in hand. Gardner is error prone in defence and attack. I think he's been made to look like something more than he is in attack because he's played outside Lyon and Gidley for such a long time. You lot see him play more often than me, so I might well be missing something, but he doesn't look nearly good enough for a top club to me.

There is a reason (hic) why hes not playing 1st team (hic) and its nothing to do with his (hic) rugby performances

I think you will find many of us share your opinion.

You can't coach dropsy out of a player. It's a psycho-physical response which is rooted deep within the subconcious. Totally different to ... say ... poor tackling technique, which is a concious decision - albeit a bad one. I'm not saying you can't do things to improve the situation (correcting footwork, positioning, jumping etc.), but if you've got bad hands age 17 you will almost certainly have bad hands age 27.

Signing Ainscough in place of Meli would be a step sideways, perhaps backwards. Certainly opposition coaches would target him without mercy.

Ainscough's major issues seem to be positional. Ade used to be very prone to errors but some good coaching helped him out alot - Ade's biggest problem is he just doesnt seem to have any pace any more ..