Quote: Ave It! "Must say I couldn't disagree more with you.
Holdsworth for me has been superb, yes he's a few off games and maybe his attitude off the pitch isn't brilliant, but for me he is class on his day. Everything comes through Holdsworth and if it wasn’t for him we wouldn't have scored as near as many tries as we have in the last 3 years. Think he was in the top 5 for try assists last season and again this season he's in the top 10. Compare this to Matty Smith who had about 3 try assists to his name for the whole season before he joined Wigan. Also Holdsworth does more defending than any other halfback in the league, which makes his attacking stats even more impressive. I think he will be a massive loss for the team and the style of rugby we want to play and I for one wish him all the best. However he didn't want to remain here (and who can blame him) so it's best for all concerned that he leaves.'"
No problem disagreeing, thats because we're all different. Life would be boring if we were all the same!
The reason DJ was credited with so many assists is the brand of attacking rugby instilled in us by Shaun Long. From an attacking PTB, we appear to have certain set plays, the most heavily used being 9 to 7 to 6 (DJ). 6 then has either a flat ball to a running second rower or centre, or a deep ball to the full back joining the attacking line, depending which play is called. Theoretically, so long as they knew the calls and plays, anyone could adopt that role and succeed. This is the reason Matty Smith never had the same number of assists - he was a distributor. DJ certainly never gave us any "off the cuff" rugby. Don't get me wrong, i thought he did OK - certainly not the worst we've ever had by a long way - its just that he never set the field on fire for me. Like his antipodean mate, Mr Patten, his commitment waned during the year and once that enthusiasm went, so did a fair amount of his positive performances.
