What i like about makinson, he does the basics very well. His defence, catching the kicks and his handling is good.

I do like tommy, I like his never give in attitde and you can see winning means a lot to him.

I think he could be very good fullback but I'm still unsure on his positional play in attack(wello very good at this) and if he can break the line on kick returns but he's still young kid and that IMO will come with experince.

We've improved so much it's scarey to think how bad we were under Simmons this year

Ditto

Jonesy is the more dangerous player when defences are tight, he looks stronger and has better footwork. Makinson has a great attitude, if he is to be our full back he needs coaching of when to time his run into the attacking line, something that Wellens was very good at last night.
We still played last night without a No 6 and can,t see this being resoved this season, so come the play offs we will be Lacking against tighter defences.

Makinson is indeed developing into a good little nuts and bolts player. But I've never seen anyone possess the kind of pace he does and yet threaten so little whenever he has the ball - he should be capable of so much more danger than he has shown on a consistent basis so far. I wonder if it isn't a mental issue - his break last night from Lomax' pass was very telling for me: if that had been a Sullivan or Quirk or Albert they'dve just seen the try line, pinned their ears back and looked to burn down the line and stitch the FB up. Instead Tommy's first thought was to hold back and to desperately try and find a pass back inside instead. He has the physical tools but I start to wonder if he has the mentality.

Our biggest problem this season is having the mental strengths when we encounter intensity in games. When we play the poorer teams we,ve got no problem running up cricket scores, but I can,t recall many games where we have won a game in the last 5 mins through defence or attack. Our home games against Catalans, Hull and Wigan were very poor mentally, a trait which has got worse over the past 3 seasons.
We also seem very reluctant to exercise unpredictable game plans is this because we don,t have the playmakers with off the cuff plays. We know Lance is not a stand off but he he still playing the same way last night as round 1, I know we have a temporary coaching set up but surely we should come up with different tactical plans to counteract the more competitive teams.

+1000000000000000001

When talking about Makinson for me his key weakness is the inability to read the game well.
By that i mean that a natural finisher will know when and were a break is likely to take place, and consequently put themselves in a position to be on the end of passes to score trys. Jamie Foster for all the abuse he gets amongst Saints fans has shown a greater aptitude in this department compared to Tommy.
Wello is a classic example of a player who reads the game extremely well. For all his lack of pace, he scores shed loads of trys. This is because he has that skill of knowing when to join the line and were to be to take maximum advantage of a break.

Where Tommy excels is in what i would class as concentration. He always seems to be focused on the job in hand and doing the basics well.
Other young players tend to "ride the wave" in that their form can crest and trough quite heavily. Tommys game tends to merely ripple.

So what do you suggest he does? Run over defences? Perhaps send two and three tacklers flailing to the floor as he fires up the field?


You are joking, right? Makinson has the best mental attitude in the team (along with Robes).

I think CHAIRMAKER has made some very valid points, Wellens being the typical example of reading the game to substitute his lack of pace.
Makinson needs to bring some unpredictability to his game, something he can,t gain experience quickly enough from due to our lateral plays.
I seem to remember his debut game was coming in at centre and was hoping this would be his final position, think he is wasted on the wing. So if he is full back next season he has still has a lot to learn and avoid running into blind alleys. More experience in a settled position, he will do OK.

And here lies the big question mark over a future career at full back. Makinson has all the right attributes (speed, agility, hands, defence etc.) - but if he cannot accurately read the optimum point at which to insert himself into the line (or judge which way an attacker is likely to go) he will struggle to make a fist of that position.

Could you give me an example of when he didn't do this last night, given that he only had about 10 minutes on the pitch? Or when he hasn't done it in the recent past in his rare appearances at fullback? Because I'm struggling to think of an occasion. Last night, for example, he appeared to chime in beautifully, on both sides, and the team looked much more dynamic in attack as they approached the West Stand as a result of his presence there.

I didn't see the game last
Night but am quite surprised at how low key this thread is. Ok, it was "only" bradford and they had lots of injuries, but we racked up 50 odd points and kept a clean sheet, on what sounded a grotty night which could easily have been a banana skin. Couldn't really ask for much more. Are we still down from the Wigan maulings? It's a shame that we don't seem to be able to celebrate good performances, simply because at the minute we arent as good as wigan

A number of people are to busy defending opinions they formed months ago, and will only acknowledge positives if it supports said position.

I swear there are some already excitedly waiting for the likes of Brown, Turner et al to arrive just to watch them fail.

I thoroughly enjoyed last night, we beat the team in front of us by a good score, scored some lovely tries and saw some promising performances from our youngsters and from some of our senior players who had been under performing.

More of the same, please.

While you say we couldn't ask much more than a 54-0 mauling that alone says that the match was not competitive but also we didn't exactly play champagne rugby. Actually, we just played as we usually do for the most part, once we had got our knock ons/penalties out of the way in the first 20 minutes (which is really all Bradford competed for).

It was a very dull match to watch, with just the occasional rather good try to life the spirits. There was no atmosphere among Saints fans, who appeared largely bored (and wet!).

Yes, it was a win and a good win for the points difference and league position. But we could ask for more: a competitive match and a match in which we play better attacking rugby. So I suppose the low key approach on here is a reflection of the low key game last night.