I have to some extent offered potential plus points of Wello playing at 13 and you have pointed out some of the potential negatives.

The proof as they say will be in the pudding.
Wello may sink or swim in his new position. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to his new role.

If he goes well then he gets a contract extension, if he doesnt then he finishes this season and retires.

I would prefer to try him in the position than merely write him off before he has even played there. For me a player of his ability and experience deserves that chance.

!!!!!

I think he's equally devastating in attack but he isn't selfish with it. By that I mean, Tomkins will be the one to break the line pretty much all the time and that's what his game hangs on. Lomax has what Brown called 'silky skills': he enables other players to become devastating in attack by creating opportunities for them. He shares his largesse.

To be honest, I'm quite happy to get carried away over Lomax because he's our player, home grown, young and skillful. I didn't see him play at Bradford but wanted to see what he could do against the better teams, and I've seen it. Given that he hasn't played at fullback for years, and given that one of his exceptional performances was on the losing side, I think he could very easily become a better all-round fullback than Tomkins. Everyone drooled over Tomkins when they first saw him. Why shouldn't we do the same over our own player given his clear gifts in the position? It's not like he is a noob who we have to be cautious about. He's been around now and played in grand finals and stuff.

I think it's rather nice to get carried away over one of our players, especially one of our home growns. It's been a while since we have had the chance! And frankly it is such a relief and joy to watch such a dynamic player in that position after the last few years of witnessing Wello getting older and slower (an inevitable process in sport and life generally, alas).

But why should flanaghan loose his spot to a fullback ?

Because this is Saints we are talking about. Certain players have to be played even when they shouldn't be.

Probably because Brown might see the opportunity of Wellens offering a little bit more in linking the forwards with the backs in a similar role to what Wilkin is doing now. Wellens is a good reader of the game, him and Wlikin offer communication in the middle of the park. In the same way Lomax is rejuvenated in his new position a similar thing could happen to Wellens at loose forward, the coaching staff need to have a look at it over a couple of games before dismissing it straight away.
There is nothing wrong with Flanagan he,s similar to Roby a grafter, plenty of tackles good in support but just lacks a bit of creativity at the moment. Saints were at there best with creativity from 1, 6, 7, 9 and 13 its looking as though positions 1, 7, 9 is stablised so if Brown can get a bit more creativity option from 13 that might short term off set the no 6 problem until Gaskell gets more involved and game influential.

Brown has stated in the post match blurb on the Saints website that Hohaia's natural position is at 6, so I don't expect to see Gaskell given another chance there.

Brown doesn't half talk BS!! One minute he's a fan of Gaskell at six, next minute Hohaia is the dog's goolies there. He can't half talk but I'm already skeptical about everything he says!

How many players go we want linking the backs to the forwards?

We've got wilkin and lance in the halves, we've hot lomax acting as a third halfback (like brown stated last night) and now we want wello as well!

Terrible idea, keep it as it is and wello will have to wait for his chance at fullback if lomax gets hurt or loses form.

It ha dcrossed my mind that brown would move either Lomax or Wellens to play as a pivot at 13. He did the ska Edith Kevin brown at one point.

Two points from me though - that we don't really need to sacrifice muscle for another pivot and een if we did want that extra ball player, I think we could be underestimating Flash's all round game.

Wello has a fight on his hands to get in the back row on merit, flash has been very good there so I wouldn't want him dropped

I thought Flash was excellent last night.

Remember Wello will no longer have to play the full 80 so we could get more out of him.

I have faith.

Exactly, he has to earn his spot, and is he really better than our other back rowers?