THANK YOU!
I said Atkins wasnt an international class centre months ago for various reasons, mainly that he finds the touchie more than his wingman and my opinion didn't go down too well, a certain mr 74 springs to mind .
Rugby guru I am not but when it comes to spotting potential in centres i'm rarely wrong

I know he looks like he is running in treacle but once he gets going he is actually deceptively fast. No he isn't lightning over 3 to 5 yards but once he is away he is away.

JB wash your mouth out with soap. Clubb is nowhere near as good as Newlove and newy was pretty quick.

Paul Newlove was head and shoulders above any centre playing in this years 4 Nations

One thing we often bemoan is a lack of physicality amongst our threequarters. Yet when we get a big lad, rather than thinking about what training they could do to work on speed, everyone seems to want them in the pack (see the Leeds board for references to Hall for example). TBH I'd rather have a threequarter line filled with big lads than some of the fast stick-insects we seem to get out of SL.

the young Wigan centre we had on loan early last season looked very talented. Still a few years needed to develop but he certainly looked like he had the ability.

TBF its been quite a few years since we have even come to close tohaving a world class centre. And even back in the 90's it wasn;t a position we ever had alot of depth in, hence the reliance on RU centres.

thats cos any 6ft 2 plus kid we find is punted into the forwards...

my mates son is at huddersfield..he's 16,6'5",quick,athletic build (ie not a fatty).....and huddersfield have stuck him in the 2nd row....

I think there are several key points being chucked around this thread so in the interests of bringing them together I would summarise it thus:

Scoring 4 tries for your country is a great achievement and he deserves enormous credit for various reasons. True, it's not the same achievement as if it had been against Aus or NZ but as the whole team only managed 4 tries in those two games then you can see that is still something to be proud of. In similar vain if scoring against PNG is sooo easy then why did not other players get similar tallies? Clubby scored most of our tries. But the real triumph was that he did this playing on the opposite side from where England did most of their attacking. The right-hand side was particularly fruitless and yet Roby at dummy half continuously chucked the ball out that way instead of attacking the more productive left. I can only recall Clubby attacking the line 4 times in the game and he scored each time. That's the encouraging thing.

We always knew our backs would struggle against the likes of Kenny-Dowell and Brent Tate (and Inglis had he been fit). But if we couldn't match them on both size AND skill at least match them on one of the criteria and Tony Clubb is at least a similar size. What Ryan Atkins was going to contribute against those guys I fail to see, and that's not hindsight talking.

In truth Clubb has been somewhat off form this year but certainly warranted a call up for the previous two tournaments. From a Quins point of view I hope this gives him a boost and he carries this form into next season. Especially as his two main weaknesses have always been defensive discipline and getting into great attacking positions without managing to score, and both of these were gloriously absent on Saturday.

One final note: How self-important was the ref to even consider that a player who's just scored 4 tries, who's team are winning comfortably, who's career is reaching a highlight and who has celebrating his 3 previous tries by chucking the ball away in celebration, could possibly be deliberately aiming at him! "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt" - seriously what doubt??? Ever considered you might be in wrong place ref?!

Well done Clubby. England's leading try scorer and a southerner to boot. World turned upside down.

Are you seriously asking if a supposed Super League and apparently an international centre has never been told how to pass a ball?????

Yup - it appears plenty haven't been taught how to grip it properly either, given the amount being lost either in contact or when a player is regaining his feet to play it.

I agree with the "size" issue - especially in the modern game at Origin or Test level. Regular big centres such as Matt King and Israel Folau have been used on the wing in Origin and Tests.
Test football requires the right players playing a simple game plan at lightning speed. We saw from the 2008 World Cup that the right players doesn't mean packing the side with players from the top 2 teams in the League.
I'm a Quins season ticket holder and Tony Clubb has had a poor season. But if its size we need out wide at Test level, he's the man for the job.

Just to echo, Clubb had a great game, as the saying goes you can only play whats in front of you, and Clubb did that very well.

As for young players being stuck in the pack, yes totally agree.

Huddersfield are almost criminally guilty of it with a couple of their players. If they have pace and size, work on their speed and handling and get them in the centres (like Crabtree started in!)

Completely agree, but he was,nt the only player with inflated reputations.

YES!!!!!

and it's not just aimed at that particular player!!!!