If there's a better centre in the league at the moment then i'd like to see him. Upper body centre is astonishing

I wouldn't swap him for any other centre in SL.

The "Young Freddie Mercury" lookalike is playing some sensational rugby this year.

IF he's selected in the 4 nations, I hope he carries this on. If he doesn't, he risks his international future, especially after last year's 'no show'. Come on Atkins, show them how.

When we signed him we were told he couldn't/wouldn't pass, just look at him now 12 try assists to go along with his 21 tries. Plus there's plenty of other tries where he's played a big part but not been the final passer.

He breaks a lot of tackles that then lead to clean breaks so he offers a lot in attack and he has also become more solid in defence. He's really shown why we paid £200,000 for him.

helps if you've got a hooker/halves to create some room for him to exploit to the full.

He's a fooking hoss though, i love atkins, and you can tell he's made up to be a part of the warrington wolves.

Wasn't there a story where he was quoted as saying he'd received a ton of stick from his friends after posting "Atkins is a wire!" on facebook when watching us beat Hudds at Wembley?

I still fondly recall RobWire's thread questioning his pace.

I knew Atkins a couple of years ago (from Wakey) and I thought he had promise but wasn't willing to work for it. I think what I am trying to say is think along the lines of profesional footballers who have all the talent but don't feel they need to work on things as they like the celebriy lifestyle and thats Atkins. And tbf I thought of him as a bit no make that a lot of a knob. But credit were credit is due he seems to have improved a lot how much has been done by coaching staff or whether someone has told him I do not know. I also hope that he carries this on into the international scene, if not a decent coach my axe him.

Also fair play for his first try as I thought it shouldn't have been awarded but on strength and play to the whistle.

Why should it not have been awarded? He is driving Westerman back and hasn't lifted his leg at any point, don't see how it could be disallowed.

I'm not trying to de-rail the thread (honest) but I just want to move it sideways.

Just a little aside from fatbaztod's comment re Atkins' attitude
Just where do we attribute Atkins' upgrade in form?
Is it :-
a) Atkins himself, if he's told himself to stop being a 'Billy Big Biscuits'
b) Smith. Atkins was previously coached by Kear (reasonably well respected coach) and was a good player. Smith has him for a year, and he gains international honours (but he made a bit of a mess of it). 12 months further on, and (imo) he's double the player he was, when we first signed him. Something similar can be attached to King. Awesome reputation when we first signed him. Stagnated under Cullen/Lowes. Improved under Smith's first year or so, and now, back to his old NRL, SoO, Test Match level
or c) the introduction of a well respected sports psychologist to our club.

I think there's lots to this, stuff like Myler being better than he was has helped Atkins, it's a game of fractions on Myler is now better at holding up a defender that extra half a second etc than he was, see Riley's try on Friday for example. Small detail lost in the game that makes the difference.

On a similar vein, he's playing in a very clever team, like how Atkins found himself on the outside of Whiting on the wing with Riley at centre for Riley's 2nd try. This doesn't happen by fluke, TS has engineered a plan to expose Whiting on the wing, Atkins is good enough to line him up, the result is on the scoreboard. This wouldn't happen at Wakefield.

We're just a very good team, well coached with a head coach who's attention to detail is fantastic and we now have a team who can execute these plans to perfection. There was lots of this on show on Friday, driving at Manu & Yeaman to take juice out of the tank etc, moving King to right centre to make this happen, amazing stuff.