Here, here. Aggressive, enthusiastic and brave. The lad has gone under the radar for a while but now he has gone full time expect to see a lot more from him.

Yep, although one thing I would say is that it was only his second game under Smith. You'd like to think that if Smith decides he is going to work with him over the pre-season with a view to getting him back in the first team, then he will learn how to use his skills.

As you say, positional sense may be his biggest weakness at the moment, yet surely somebody like Smith can coach this? Look how Briers' defence has improved for an example.

I hate to say this but Blythe was absolutely terrible.

The other player who seems to escape criticism is Mathers though; he constantly looks shaky under a kick and never beats the first man on kicks returns. Lacks pace.

He only missed one to be fair, and that was a good kick behind him. He takes everything else.

He certainly doens't lack pace.

He doesn't inspire confidence. And if he had good pace and/ or evasive skills he would be beating players which he never does. His best asset is his communication skills.

Compared to the best FBs at other clubs (Wellens, Webb, Hodgson) he is very ordinary.

He beat Ryan Hall chasing a ball against Leeds and he's fast.

Rau has been consistently one of our worst players, if he could recapture the form he had against Leeds in the playoffs a couple of years ago then he could be one of the best forwards in SL.

It's too early to judge on Blythe but yesterday he had one of his worst performances in a Wire shirt.

I disagree, I think he is a different player to them though.

One thing he does very well is be in position for the deep kicks. He then just runs straight back at the defence. Whilst this allows him to be tackled, it does make us as many metres as possible.

He averages 7.7m per carry
Wellens averages 6.3m
Webb averages 6.6m
Hodgson averages 6.5m

He does make less tackle busts, but he seems to go down to get a quick ptb, I'm not sure whether this has always been his style, or a change in style in response to his serious injury.

Mathers plays up in the line a lot like an extra half, whereas a lot of the others are traditional 1's.

Tackle Completion

Mathers - 89.4%
Webb - 81%
Wellens - 88%
Hodgson - 77.4%


Errors

Mathers - 10 (1 per game)
Webb - 11 (0.6 per game)
Wellens - 19 (0.9 per game)
Hodgson - 34 (1.7 per game)

So he makes more metres than the others, his tackle completion is better, and his error count is similar.

He's doing okay by me. Last night they scored a few tries where he had made the try saving tackle. On the next play nobody covered for him.

To be honest I was a bit underwhelmed at our signing of Mathers, not particularly bothered either way.

Watching him play for us I've not once been sorry we signed him. He's always been solid and for me is a much safer bet than Readon at FB. Plus he looks like he wants to be here and play for us and the stats above speak for themselves. I'm really glad we signed him.

And that is a good word for him (apart from the one glaring costly error he seems to come up with per match). I would want more attacking threat from FB.

Thought pickers had a solid game, and McCarthy didn't look out of place at all considering 1st game back from knee op and his debut.

But not actually making a break. And that is the point. He needs to beat the first man on the kick return and he never does.

He needs to work on his basic speed and evasion skills.

He did against Hull at home.

He made a break in broken field at Widnes last week too, with good footwork. Kick return, broken field.

His 'strength' is as a 3rd halfback, rather than line breaker, which he will make his share of.

Agree with that, I like a traditional full back that can hit the line out wide and cause an over lap, but right now with our lack of scrum half Mathers is doing a good job of linking up when needed.

I rate Mathers and think Tony Smith did and outstanding bit of business in bringing himhere.

FWIW I really rate Mathers too. As well as those stats he has a hugely infectious, persuasive, enthusiasm for the game and what it means to be in a team.

Plenty other positions in the team which require improvement before the full back berth comes under the spotlight for me. He'll do me fine and he would fit in to a SL winning side no bother. Maybe he's a Republican