Maybe he's not even laying a finger on them, hence he's not getting a missed tackle stat?

good point.

If I was to have him anywhere in the team, I would have him on the wing. The problem we have if that our best players aren't exposed to regular instense game during the season. This is down to poor opposition and too many crap teams in super league.

That has always been my opinion on Atkins. He has the physical potential to be one of the best wingers in the world.

England would look so much more solid with wingers like Atkins and McGilvray that wouldn't get bullied and ragdolled like they usually do. Big centres in Shenton and Reed too.

1 - Welle.... Tomkins
2 - McGilvray
3 - Shenton
4 - Reed
5 - Atkins
6 - Widdop
7 - Lomax
8 - Graham
9 - Roby
10 - Carvell
11 - Ellis
12 - Burgess
13 - Westwood

Is the ideal 13, I take it Burgess will be out?

I was really looking forward to seeing Atkins play in the 4 Nations last year and I (like many) was very disappointed when he came up short

Having said that, he has improved his game again this year – in particular his passing game has improved considerably and (to quote Phil Clarke) he threw a pass at the weekend that we wouldn’t have been capable of last year

If we do give him a run in the 4 Nations then we need to do this in the position that he has been played all year – the left centre – otherwise we are doing him and the team a disservice. For me, picking the team on form, the left centre seems to be a straight matchup between Yeaman and Atkins. In Atkins favour, he is bigger and faster than Yeaman while neither have an exceptional passing game. In Yeaman’s favour, he is probably a safer bet than Atkins as you would expect him to be sound defensively and he has certainly taken his chance internationally before and not looked out of place. Also, he would form a club wing/centre partnership as you would expect Briscoe to get the nod on the left wing

This is a really hard call for me as Atkins was poor last year... but if Wire make a run all the way to the Grand Final and Atkins plays well I would be just about tempted to go with him as we will not beat Australia and New Zealand by going for the safer options and we need a backline full of athletes for me

If Yeaman got the nod, I would be comfortable with that... what I definitely wouldn’t want to see of players playing out of position

Not picking Jack Reed Dunbar?

I love it when people try and isolate statistics and claim they show the full picture.

Yeaman - 224 tackles, 20 missed. (You can have that one!)

Atkins - 278 tackles, 10 missed.

Carmont - 448 tackles, 25 missed.

Shenton - 618 tackles, 27 missed.

So while Atkins does indeed miss fewer tackles, he makes a hell of a lot less of them too.

To be honest, I’ve not seen enough of him to make a call (plus not sure if he will be an English player)

Looking at Super League, I would say we have a little competition for centre these days. Atkins, Yeaman, Welham and Laurence for left centre and then another group who could do a job at right centre – Watkins, Bridge and Shenton in particular plus J Tomkins who has played a full season there

If winning the 4 Nations was a priority, I would probably go for Yeaman and Bridge but if we were looking to build for the future I think Atkins and Watkins could become a very athletic and dangerous centre pairing if they continue to develop as they are

Lies, damn lies.....
Good post there.

Maybe Warrington spend so much time attacking Atkins doesn't have the opportunity to make as many tackles. Attack being the best form of defence.

Perhaps - but the point of that post was to highlight that you can't use a missed tackle stat without clarifying it.

On their own, it looks like his defence is vastly tighter than that of Carmont and Shenton. But when you realise that they have made 170 and 340 more tackles respectively, you see that it isn't as impressive as when the stat is there on its own.

I'm not taking anything away from Atkins, but the post I quoted was selective and misleading.

Just to be fair, here's Welham's

Tackles completed 355
Tackles missed 57

13.8% missed tackle rate.