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?

The mid air 'step' that Johnson does and a few others before him is great for tiring defenses (ask Kevin Sinfield) and in close 1/4s can either look amazing or gets you KTFO if an opposing forward doesn't fall for it or one comes in to blindside you (generally the latter as a lot of forwards are too slow of thought to even figure out that players like SJ 90% of the time step in the same direction)
I think even the smaller backs are relying more on outright pace and change of direction/body swerve as opposed to a classic side step as this hasn't really being coached for years by the looks of things and probably doesn't come naturally to many players anyway.
Escare has a small full flight step which with his pace is effective, I remember Gareth Raynor's 95m try against Joey Johns' Warrington side and he did one at not far shy of full chat & nearly fell over, still managed to bamboozle the Warry defence and two of their players clattered into each other but it shows that even someone of Raynors size who was about 14.5 stone found it hard to do at real pace.

Most of the succesful clubs have got very good mobile forwards with lots of pace and a decent change of direction.Peter Gentle tried bringing this in at Hull & was ridiculed for it



As for the halves needing to be elusive, they certainly did, the refs let a hell of a lot of high/late tackles go with barely a flicker or even a penalty. A penalty was a small price to pay for taking out your opponents playmaker though and most coaches would be instructing their hitman to do exctly that. I remember Topliss getting ted really badly in 82 or 83 CC semi final in the first few minutes and the ref played on for the first one, 2nd one the Cas player (might have being J.Joyner) properly facked him and toppo stayed down..touchie came on and the ref gave a penalty, not even a warning IIRC.
That's how it was for halves in the 70s/80s, dunno about the before that (i didn't start going to games until I was 9 in '7icon_cool.gif but I expect it was just as uncompromising if not more so...certainly there were a few hardmen of yesteryear that would batter some of the handbag swingers we see now.

It really depends on the nature of the step. Remember the quote, "stay on your toes"? As is usually the case with these old sayings whose origins have receded into the fog of the past - there's a lot of sense here. Most players I see in SL these days whether they be running, stepping or whatever - plant their feet flat. This means their joints bear the full force of any change of direction and should one or both feet be planted incorrectly it's curtains for the ligaments which are the weakest link in the chain. However, we've all seen those players who seem to do everything literally on the tips of their toes. Instead of plunging all their studs into the pitch flat like a rock climber hammering in a piton they appear almost to "skate" on the grass using only the first three or four studs. This technique, which can be learned by anyone with sufficient patience and effort, gives the player enormous lateral agility and - better still - it significantly reduces the load pushed through the knee joint.

We've all seen players with such technique. Jason Robinson is the most obvious example. You NEVER saw him blasting his supporting foot into the pitch before stepping the opposite way. At times he seemed almost to be running on a single stud. I'm pretty sure Robinson never suffered a major knee injury (such as a cruciate rupture), too.

If I had to pick a player today who has a similar technique I'd say Kieran Dixon. I defy anyone to match him step for step planting his foot flat into the turf.

Dave Myers, rest his soul, was nicknamed "Stepper"

Steve Kerry

A bit biased but on his day David Faiumu had the best and probably the biggest sidestep i've seen in Super League !