I wonder if we would have even signed Westwood, had Neil Turley accepted our offer in mid 2002. From my memory, this was the time when Steve Anderson left and Simon Moran (who wasn't the full owner back then but was on the board) put some money to be available to David Plange to strengthen the side, we went for Turley, Turley ummed and ahhed, then we pulled out and David Plange said we had "other irons in the fire". Pretty quickly we moved on to Westwood in a deal that also brought Nat Wood, and at the time Nat Wood was probably more significant in us surviving as Westwood's impact back then was not great.

Westwood had had a good year in 2001 under John Harbin in Wakey's great escape season when they had points deducted, but he'd started 2002 in less good form and the Wakefield fans told us that we had signed the wrong one, Ellis was the real prospect. David Plange said he was the next Keith Senior but from 2002-2004 he looked like he was a bit overrated, Wakey fans used to taunt us on our forum about him being "Ben Deadwood" the flop whereas Ellis went from strength to strength with them.

I thought when he was a centre/wing he always looked like a handful in contact but he just lacked speed and didn't have a step or swerve or anything to make him dangerous as an outside back, he was straight up and down and just a strong player that was hard to stop. He had a couple of good moments. The run in of 2003, when we made the playoffs for the first time, he had some good games on the wing, and in 2004 he got a hat-trick on the wing against Cas. But other than that he was never really consistent.

When we signed Gleeson, Fa'afili and Kohe-Love for 2005 I thought that was the writing on the wall for Westwood he would just be a back up player and then get moved on at the end of his contact, then Paul Noone I think it was who got injured and we used him as a forward and he looked great in the pack and never looked back.

As good as Westwood is,he needs to learn to pass.

Agreed - that pass round the man out of the tackle to Atkins last week was terrible.

I'd rather he didn't if his effort to J Monaghan at Huddersfield is anything to go by.

How far forward was that?



Imagine if he'd got pulled for it, as he could have fell over the line.

what do you think of him as a backrower sally?

how does he rate compared to the rest of world rugby league in your eyes?

I think it's harder to compare backrowers than it is say to compare fullbacks or standoffs. You can tell who the top ones are but it's harder to split hairs and rank the individuals in definitive order eg who's better out of Gallen, Thaiday, Ellis etc.

But to make a general view on Westwood's place in world rugby league, he's an England regular, if he was a New Zealander, he would be a Kiwi regular. If he was an Aussie, he would be around the State of Origin and Kangaroo squads, he would have had Origin and Test caps even if he wasn't first pick all the time.

Top 10 in the world definitely, top 5 not sure, possibly.

Westwood is world class. I wouldn't swap him for Ellis if I was given the chance.

One thing the Aussies would love about him is his work ethic and that little bit of mongrel.

is that the same Aussies that smashed him all over during the recent test match

Isn't playing tonight.

I respectfully suggest you adjust your set. Your current picture is providing you with a pile of .