Ade Gardner

Quote: Stirlingshire Saint "I love it when a fan of another club comes on and describes our own player. In the what...maybe 10 games a year that you get the chance to see Saints, how do you manage to spot these obvious problems in his game which Saints speccies (who watch pretty much every Saints game) don't see ?

Can anybody remember the last time Gardner looked a mess defensively ? I certainly can't, in fact I can't think of a better SL winger at defending his flank and supporting his centre defensively. The decision making of Gardner defensively is one of his strongest qualities.
'"

The most recent and most glaring example I can give you is his performance in the WC. There have been plenty of other incidents throughout his career though. And not so much 'a mess', more coming in, biting on a wedge or coming in to double up on an opposing centre, leaving a gap on the outside. He can tackle, I haven't questioned that. His decision making is not very good though.

Quote: Stirlingshire Saint "Raynor is so awesome that he doesn't even run forward. If I wanted to watch a crab, I'd visit the beach. There is no way Raynor is a better winger defensively than Gardner either, not a cat in hells chance. He's quicker than Gardner and that is about it (plus he's better at going sideways, I think Raynor is pretty much the best sideways runner in International RL).'"

That pretty much ends any chance of a decent debate. If you think that he only runs sideways (you clearly don't, do you? If you did, you'd probably be shocked to learn that their metres per game and metres per carry were pretty similar last year, despite Gardner being in a team that creates many more opportunities, and him being on the wing that profits most from that) there's not much point continuing as it would mean that you know next to nothing about the game. It would be amazing that someone who only runs sideways could manage so often to get his arms through the tackle to offload or that he could bust so many tackles. Plus it would mean that, rather than the actual situation which involves him making extremely valuable and helpful-to-the-team ground away from our line, he be constantly pushed back into the in-goal area when scooting during exit sets. That doesn't happen either though, does it?

And defensively, he very rarely makes the wrong choice (it happens sometimes, but even the best wingers do it occasionally as their natural instinct to stop the ball getting to the outside comes into play) and almost invariably completes the tackle after making that choice.

Quote: Stirlingshire Saint "Gardner could never be 'right up there' because he is too slow for a winger. However, in terms of British wingmen, there is absolutely no competition for Gardner, none at all.'"

'Right up there' in terms of being one of the best British wingers. As it is, he falls just short of the top two or three due to his defensive failings. It is something that can be improved though and he just needs coaching away from his natural instinct.