Wellens is a player who performs above his station and has done for a decade. People constantly criticise his lack of pace, but at 30 he's still winning games for Saints. His defense against Wigan was sensational, taking everything they threw at him and dumping Carmont in touch to save a sure try. He also scored a vital try in the game.

We've not had any top fullbacks in Super League. Wellens is by far the best English fullback there has been in that time, consistent and inspirational.

Yep (as long as you add the word 'British' before 'fullbacks'). A damning indictment for the quality of fullback we've produced over the past 20 years.

Oh I don't know.

That Chris Thorman was pretty special

I wish people would stop comparing Wellens with the likes of Slater etc... They're a class above Wellens. However thats not a bad thing when competing at Super League level.

Pace isent everything and we can rely on him to save matches and be passionate about his hometown team.

He seems to be like Leon Pryce. No matter how well he plays he still gets criticised by the opposition and neautrals.

Thing is though, a full back's main job is the last line of defence and I can't think of a better last line in SL that Wellens, plus he's that dependable under a towering bomb that you just think "oh well, Wellens is there". Saints defence is noticably less solid when he's out too.

And considering he has the pace of a snail (apparently), his try scoring record isn't too shabby....

That is the antiquated attitude most over here have still and that's why we've produced fullbacks like Wellens. It's starting to change a bit and the fullback is being used better at a lot of teams now (although that's still mainly in teams with antipodean fullbacks), but it's going to be a long time before we regularly start producing attacking options there from the junior levels upwards.

Let's get this straight, compare any fullback to the likes of Billy Slater and they will look average, the guy is a freak!

The comparison with others is always the problem. Wellans is one of the most reliable in SL. Do I think he's a world beater no, but definatley reliable. I too am baffled how he scores so many tries when he clearly 'lightning slow', but the stats don't lie.

I did like his comment during the interview about the players in the world cup........

What about comparing fullbacks to the likes of, to pick some names from recent years, Karmichael Hunt, Luke Patten, Clinton Schifcofske, David Peachey, Preston Campbell, Brett Stewart, Kurt Gidley, Brent Webb, Matt Bowen, Jarryd Hayne, Rhys Wesser, Nathan Merritt, Anthony Minichiello, Clint Greenshields, Brett Hodgson?

That's one from each NRL club from the last 5 years better than anything we've produced in the last 15. And I've kindly left it at just one, whilst also excluding Slater, because apparently it's not fair to compare our players with him. That means players like Darius Boyd, Ben Hornby, Wade McKinnon, Luke Burt, Amos Roberts aren't included and nor are youngsters just coming through like Josh Dugan, Lachlan Coote, etc.

It's not about picking a one off and comparing them, it's every single club, every year that has a better fullback than anything we've got.

Why does a truly great performance have to bring out the negative in so many people ? Some fans, honestly.....



I'm no Saints fan, nor an apologist for Paul Wellens, but he was absolutely outstanding on attack and defence on Sunday and the difference between Saints winning and losing.

He would never claim to be in the Billy Slater class but no one can question whether he made the most of his talent, giving 100% in every one of his 400 games.

Never mind slating Eddie Hemmings, the real dummy is the reporter (James Robertson) from League Weekly who gave Wellens 6/10 for his performance at Wigan - while alongside his match report editor Danny Lockwood was describing the Saints full-back as 'sublime'.

I used to think Briscoe was a better FB than Wellens but PW'S performance against Wigan was fantastic, obviously you can't judge on one game alone but this year Wellens has been a class above Shaun Briscoe.

I thought Eddie Hemmings had every right to cream himself with Wellens' performance, he deserved MOTM, not Jamie Foster who looked shaky, but that was understandable.

Wellens was the difference in us winning and losing on Sunday.