James Roby, been doing it for the last 10 years! Pretends to pass to the first receiver, steps to the side of the marker and away he goes.

<Insert player from my team here>

The only real answers are Kallum Watkins and Matty Russell. Maybe Burrow.

good step off both feet but seems to lack the explosive pace off the mark to get through the gap he's created

You hit the nail right on the head. Gareth Widdop doesn't have the acceleration.

More to the point, can anyone remember the last Englishman with those attributes?

You mean other than the ones already listed in this thread?

Probably Alan Hardisty. We've not produced a single player of note in the last 40 years, obviously.

Why do people write has these days and not have? Never got that.

Thomas Bishop and Roger Milward.

David Topliss

Chris Thorman

Des Drummond, Henderson Gill, Phil (he's a rubber man) Ford

Welshman Paul Prendiville of Hull had probably the best side-step in the game in the late70s/early 80s, decent top end speed but great acceleration off the mark and scored most of his tries leaving opposing wingers graspng thin air, properly decent filed and place kicker too.

DD, Gill and Ford weren't really classical sidesteppers they had great changes of direction/swerves and had great acceleration.

Can't think of too many great sidesteps. But this doesn't mean players haven't tried developing them.

The problem with the sidestep is it puts the knee joint under enormous abnormal load. True, this was the case thirty years ago, too. But thirty/forty years ago centres weighed in somewhere between 12st 8lb and 14st. Duggie Greenall famously struggled to top 11st!

It's one thing for semi-professional guys weighing in at 12-14st to change direction quickly. Bear in mind that unlike today, they weren't always balancing precariously on the edge between peak explosive strength and injury. What I'm saying is today's players are exhaustively trained and conditioned to sprint, accelerate, tackle, drive etc. close to or at maximum possible effort - each tackle. Everyday actions cause no difficulties (barring injury) - but the sidestep is an inherently risky maneuver. The trick is to disperse the enormous stresses a change-of-direction results in among those areas where the knee is strong. The problem comes when for some reason those stresses are instead brought to bear upon those parts of the knee which don't respond well to shock-loading (particularly the ligaments). Of course, this was a problem 40 years ago. But not at [itoday's masses - and running this close always to peak explosive energy.[/i

The sidestep is invariably the first skill to disappear following any kind of serious knee injury. Tommy Martyn had an outrageously poetic step off either foot in his prime. The moment he blew out his cruciate it was never seen again.

So whilst the step isn't entirely gone. I think the very nature of the modern game means that it is a risk some players aren't willing or are too injured to take.

Aside from the step I don't see any great drought of skills in SL.

Speaking solely about Saints - Johnny Lomax has a superb change of pace coupled with great agility off either foot. Whether this remains the case after two cruciate injuries (connected?) remains to be seen.

Jordan Turner has been stepping and dummying past SL defences all season. Meanwhile Mark Percival has the most natural fend/swerve combo I've seen from an English centre since Newlove. In the forwards Kyle Amor and Andre Savelio are as laterally agile as any forwards I know.

certainly the classic sidestep at speed is very rare to see these days, Williams the Welsh RU winger was probably the most recent great exponent of it at the highest level on these shores, Prediville was about 11.5 stone wet through which was light even for a winger back then so it wasn't a problem for him even later into his career.

this is a decent point, are players simply too heavy nowadays to have a decent step with speed? perhaps the obsession with size has resulted in less mobility off the mark and in tight spaces.

also in times gone by, did the 5m rule at the ptb mean the no.s 6 and 7 needed the step developing just simply to avoid decapitation from an onrushing forward?