Jon Wilkin has not been the problem. His field kicking is not the best, but there is not a lot wrong with his game or commitment.

What?????? Are you Tony Blair?

You'd make a good politician.

im from the north....does that mean we like him or not?

I'm not an avid follower of the board so I wasn't fully aware of your thoughts over the last 6 years. Now I am, it's safe to say we're arguing the toss over 7 games in which we've seen slightly different things. We're entitled to opinions and whilst I don't agree with you, we're going to start circulating each other if we continue.

I am surprised that SaintsFan, after admonishing me for failing to address their point has failed to answer my point regarding Wilkins statistical superiority in ALL worthwhile back row contributions so far this season to Sean O Loughlin who is generally held up in such a good light.

Or what Lance Hohaia's tackling stats have to do with Jon Wilkin.

Because I was talking about his leadership, not whether he was any good as a back rower, although he certainly hasn't been playing to the levels of last year.

If I wanted to portray Wilkin as the one and only scapegoat for this season's mess I would have probably posted a thread title such as, [i"Wilkin

Of course, there are countless other under-performing players. But many of them are young, inexperienced, physically immature (Gaskell, Foster , Makinson etc.), or new to the team (Hohaia, Laffranchi), or so modest of ability there's is no earth-shaking difference between a good and a bad performance (Meli, Gardner and possibly Flannery). In other words - they have one (or more) mitigating factors.

Wilkin is a good player (or at least should be). He's in his prime. He lacks neither maturity nor experience. He's tactically astute etc. Which means he has far fewer excuses. Hence my singling him out for specific criticism.

This.

Since Wilkin wants the benefits of being a senior player, not to mention an international, then he must also take the responsibilities. That's part of being a team. IMO neither he nor one or two other senior players have been doing this and that is largely the reason why we slid in confidence once we lost Robes to injury.

Last season almost every time one of our newbies referred to on-field/performance guidance it was either Jammer or Pryce they mentioned. Those have both gone. I don't think anyone has stepped in to take their place but the inexperienced guys are still to play a full season in the first team (Foster excepted) and therefore still need the same support and guidance they needed last year.

Not sure how much " on field guidance" pryce gave last year, he was barely on the field himself.