And yet it is worthless if the player in question cannot perform the multitude of other tasks a centre is given.



But he was quicker than Loughlin.



Certainly no better than Newlove.



But not as many as Newlove.



If by "showy" you mean he was the most potent attacking centre Britain has produced in the last thirty years - sure. He was also a damned good winger's centre - as Anthony Sullivan's record attests.



So we've gone from Loughlin being "every bit" as good as Newlove to someone who did his job with the "minimum of fuss". And you've successfully managed to identify one attribute Loughlin had over Newlove - kicking.

I remember Loughlin before he came to Bradford. I can't remember any 80/90m tries he scored on his own, however I am mainly going on Saints games I saw on TV and when he was playing Northern.

I'm not knocking Loughlin, who was a very good player and lost nothing in competition with the Aussies in 88 and 92 but he wasn't as good as Newlove.

Does it 'eck. Connolly was the best British defensive centre I've seen, and was pretty handy with the ball, but Newlove was miles better in attack. He scored 86 more tries than him, for starters. I'm sure if you asked Sully he'd tell you what a good winger's centre Newlove was too. He put four tries on a plate for him in his debut.That is not to detract from Sullivan's own class as a try scorer, of course. The reality is that it was a deadly partnership, far more so than Loughlin/Sullivan ever was.

Loughlin couldn't go 80m for a try bud. Newlove scored 36 tries in one season, Loughlin scored 80 in total for Saints. It wasn't until Newlove picked up his hamstring that his try scoring total dipped below 19 per season. Coincidentally that injury led to Sullivan only scoring 24 tries over the next two years before he left (he had averaged 25 tries per season outside Newlove before that compared to 17 outside Loughlin).

I think Loughlin didn't play inside Sully for very long. Lockers main wing partners were Ledger ( when he was younger ), and Quirk. Plus when Sully played outside Lockers he was on the wane.

I loved Lockers as a player and watched him home and away pretty much through his Saints career. It could just be rose tinted glasses but during his career I think only Connelly was in his league in terms of British Centres.

Lockers played in a part time side during the winter. If, during his best days, he had played on flat,hard pitches we would have seen a far better player ( See GB tour of Aus 1988 ).

Just to be annoying, if you're going back as far as 30 years Schofield would be the best centre GB has produced. Fat, annoying etc he may be now, and many will probably rmember him best at stand off, but he was a world class centre aged 18 and remained so until he moved to stand off (including being top tryscorer for Balmain one year).

I always thought that had Loughlin been half a yard faster he would have been genuinely up there with the best. As it was he was a very good player, but a fair way behind Newlove in ability.

BTW if you get the chance, have a look at any Manly games you can. Jamie Lyon is in absolutely stunning form this year - he's easily the best right centre in the NRL right now. Even though I don't like Manly, its a real joy to watch a guy play centre who isn't 18 stone or lightning fast, but still tears opponents to pieces. His performance against the Broncos here a few weeks ago ought to be mandatory viewing for any young centre on how to vary runs, make space for his winger, and end up absolutely terrifying the Broncos left side defence.