He is a very annoying man when on camera.

How often will he talk up some of his young players?

A true superman who deserves his slot.

Best winger and most exciting rugby player I have ever seen.

Yeah the Aussies have some superb athletes, Inglis, Hodges, Slater etc but Offiah was better than the lot.

Would be interesting to hear where Rogues would place him in relation to Boston, Bevan, Van Vollenhoven etc.

Personally i though that Robinson was a more exiting player to watch and the others were well befor my time (no offence Rogues )

Offiah was a dreadful defender as much as he was a superb attacker. I used to get well angry as a lad watching him squirm when having to make a tackle.

He wasnt dreadful at all, he made some tackles only he could have made with his pace, robinson you didnt know what he was going to do, but neither did he as he stated himself. You just wanted Offiah to get a yard anywhere and it was over, that was his excitment

Agree entirely regarding Offiah's defence - its funny how year on year it gets called worse and worse !
Billy was exciting but no where near the same class as Offiah as a finisher.
Whereas Billy was 'all action', Offiah glided through gaps the same way Sam does. So its no where near as spectacular but my goodness it was effective.
And Ive never seen anyone toy with a FB like a Chariots did

I always found him more exciting in the early days when he played for Widnes. He was far less predictable and hadnt had the raw talent coached out of him. He was a better rounded player once he settled at Wigan, but less entertaining.

He could run an opponent down for sure.

Different story when someone ran directly at him

Offiah got clobbered regular with and without the ball and always got right up and carried on, and his defence was never anywhere near as bad as what people make out. He wasn't a textbook defender but he wasn't a bad defender either. I'd like to see a decent amount of examples of this poor defence as I have tons of games from that era, and I've never noticed this terrible defence.

As for his attack, there isn't a player on the planet who can do what he used to do week in week out. A player like that nowadays would take half the salary cap on his own. Sam is special, Offiah was a one off pure and simple.

Watch the clips on YouTube from his days playing in the NRL, they loved the guy and bigged him up as someone who could do what nobody else could, the Aussies don't do that about British player.

The only thing that Offiah could do was run. And he was very good at it.

Boston used to smash his way over the line dragging 3 and 4 players with him in his later days, Voll was also quite powerful. Bevan was actually often scared of getting tackled, but again he was stunning when on the run and very fast.

I remember Bevan actually throwing the ball into touch once at Wilderspool when Billy was closing in to tackle him.But you don't score the amount of tries he scored, without any talent.

The main reason for me as to why Offiah got all those tries in his best season was, he had the brilliant Gene Miles on his inside feeding him the ball.

Offiah was a 'speed merchant' and could easily run the full length of the field.

I agree, this is a myth that has developed over the years.

For some reason people feel the need to balance anything they say about Offiah, he was that great that they feel they need to say something negative, and this idea has developed that he was a gaping liability in defence. I just saw him as a standard winger in defence, you wouldn't say he was the best tackler on your team but he was competent.

Problem is nowadays when any young winger emerges that can't tackle, Offiah gets brought up as an excuse. "Yes the lad can't tackle but who cares about defence, Offiah couldn't tackle either". I've heard that said about loads of our players, Nicky Royle and Kevin Penny being classic examples, neither of whom were within ten leagues of Offiah with ball in hand (although they might both have been able to pip him in a straight footrace), and neither of whom were half as good as him in defence.

Offiah was quick without a doubt but what set him apart (and I have never seen any player come close in this regard) was his ability to find space, manoeuvre without losing speed and just beat players with movement as well as pace. Of course once he had half a yard on someone, he wasn't getting run down.

Jason Robinson was not far behind Offiah tbh but a very different player. Robinson was more explosive and more likely to create space out of nothing from a standing start. He was another player in a different league to anything around today.

He said on twitter that he thought home and away games in the playoffs would work

I liked him better when he was playing cause everytime he says something it's wrong the guy is clueless

Ahh the familiar polarising opinions of Offiah.

For my money, the greatest finisher I have ever seen in either code and, despite what people like to think, not a bad defender either.

In response to an earlier post, he played a grand total of 15 games outside Gene Miles. 15! Not sure we can therefore attribute that many of Martin's 500 career tries to the big Aussie.

If he isn't announced as the RL Wembley statue today I'll be stunned

He played outside Miles for less than half a season so that excuse is shocking.

He could do far far more than just run, his change of pace, the in and out was something I've not seen any other winger do in the 25 years I've watched the game. He had an ability to spot a gap and know he could get through it. If the gap may not have been there had he just run flat out, his ability to pull players inside and create his own space on the outside was something I've never seen anyone else do. He could use that touch line like no other player, he was unique plain and simple. Today's wingers wouldn't have a clue how to do what he did.