You can't fail to recognise the fact that Ryan king is a very good winger.England 16s,England 18s . Last season top try scorer. Pushed Matty Russell close for man of the match in the academy final. This season he was injured in the first game of the season against Barrow .He was still injured when he was selected to play in a pointless friendly against South Wales scorpions. Actually limping in the warm up . This knocked him back a further 3 weeks. He has scored 16 tries in the nines so far and he is still getting his confidence and speed back. I watch every game of the academy and the problem lies mainly with the centre not distributing the ball . He has gone full games without getting a single pass , only getting the ball running from dummy half , On his debut he scored 2 tries taken extremely well outside Carmont and would have had his third only for a forward pass from hock.For me he should be given the oportunity to show what he can do . As for saying he would get mullered under the high ball , Ryan has a very safe pair of hands , very rarely knocking on and extremely safe under the high ball .

Any winger new to the first team will be targeted, the physical presence that Gelling has gives him the advantage over the others being put forward for the first team.

Well, whoever plays on Friday should have a field day against Ainscough!

He is useful because he is such a handful to defenders. Seems to make more ground than other wingers. He didn't do anything wrong did he? All I saw was a raw athlete running hard and finishing off one good chance he got.

high crossfield kicks to Ainscoughs wing on Friday

Two or three half-chances, that he simply didn't have the pace to exploit (Mellor outpaced him for the first one, IIRC). He's had a run of 8 straight games now, 10 in total, he should be showing more signs of improvement, IMO.

I think he could be an excellent centre, I just don't think he's enough of a threat on the wing.

He is not a natural finisher but he is hard to stop close to the line. He probably won't score them like Josh does from distance but he will finish off decent chances.

He hits hard taking the ball up and he hits hard in defence. He is good under the high ball and doesn't seem to get low on confidence after a mistake.

Agreed, and all excellent qualities. Perhaps I'm just being greedy in wanting a long-range threat on both wings, but I don't think it's a lot to ask...all our nearest rivals (except Saints

) seem to manage it.

And they are all behind us. You can't have everything...

This simply isnt true. In the past Goulding has got more undeserved stick on here, even when he was still a teenager, than any other player that I have seen. Goulding also had never played on the wing before first team level and despite doing very well, scoring loads of tries and getting picked for England he was still criticised by some and certainly didnt get the leeway that people seem to want Gelling to get. Any criticism of Gelling is certainly nothing compared to some of the stick that Goulding has got in the past.

So what do we want Gelling to do? Is he a second rower, centre or winger? Are we trying to manufacture a winger out of him? Are there any ready made wingers who can step in? Are we then depriving a home-grown player the chance to play, who may also have the potential?