Quote ROBINSON="ROBINSON"Ade Gardner is good at falling over try lines.
And that's it. Seriously. There are few funnier things on a rugby field than witnessing an attempt by Gardner at returning a kick. "Hold ball with both hands, grimace, stop running, and turn away."'"
That is one thing that really boils my pee about him - about 5 years ago his kick returns were pretty great and certainly fully commited - he got up full speed and just went staight into the line... not sure he ever broke through but you can't have everything - nowadays its exactly as you described and completely cringeworthy!
He does have to ability to rush in when in an overlap situation and tackle the centre before he can pass the ball - so far I think he is good there...
It might have been over the top praise but we won the 2007 WCC through an amazing Gardner leap, catch and score which led Daniel Anderson to suggest he was the best in the comp but his career progression has been in reverse of late, not just this one game Saints to a man (except about 3) played poorly on Saturday but when was the last time in SL that Gardner
a: broke/bust a tackle on a kick return
b: actually "won the collison" taking the ball in
c: made a clean break
d: rounded a man with just his speed
To me I can't remember any of the above for a long time, they were never regular events but he was able to do them once - I've no idea why but his confidence appears to have completely drained away - and he looks nervous and hesitant which is making a decent player look appalling.
... 
