as I wigan fan I second it to be fair

I don’t dislike Welsby at all personally. He’s arrogant, confident and a good player with lots of room to improve and at a young age has cemented himself as a key St Helens player.

He’s a maverick type player and doesnt conform to the norm which I like about young players these days. They’re not afraid to play with their eyes wide open and try things. He isn’t overhyped as some in the league are (or were) [ahem Jake Connor ahem] and his somewhat disliking amongst Wigan fans is a consequence of his skill.

Now to wash my mouth out with soap….

Reckon he'll end up at 6 when Lomax goes, he's got the skills for there and I think he'll be more comfortable defending there, bit of the opposite to Field, Jai doesn't seem to have the physicality to defend in the middle but when someone breaks through against us I've never any doubt that Field will make the tackle, his technique is exceptional were as Jack looks like he could get turned inside out by anyone with a step

Welsby is world class and as naturally gifted as any British player that has come through in a long time. Yes he's arrogant during games and that may trip him up at some point. But in fairness to him he's much more reserved and sporting during interviews.

I’ve said similar on here. I think he’d be even better at 6. Defensively he’s not outstanding and also under the high ball.

The problem is that he would have to do a lot more defending. Teams will push a lot of traffic his way. Anyway, it will not be an issue is Saints don’t offer him marquee money quickly.

He isn’t and won’t ever be another Tomkins because he doesn’t have the pace. He’s far from slow but Sam was electric in those first few seasons. I’d say Welsby picks a pass better than early Sam Tomkins (but Tomkins has developed ten fold on that due to losing that pace) but he’s well behind in terms of individual threat. Realistically I think Tomkins started at 6 but made the right move to go in to 1, whereas I think Welsby should go the other way. We’d then probably compare him more to guys like Williams, Lomax or actually a comparison to a modern day Sam Tomkins would be more apt. He is now a quicker version of the Sam Tomkins we see playing today.

I don’t disagree with any of that.

On Welsby that’s another match winning try today. He’s clearly listening to Wellens who has encouraged him to run more. He’s a big strong lad who’s hard to put down.

Hopoate now injured again to add to Hurrell and the others. Big win today under the circumstances, we were excellent second half after an awful first half.

What's your take on the referee Stu?
Paul Rowley has had a real moan, called him a disgrace. I've seen the tries after the Leeds v Leigh game and the Lees one looks very very debatable>

One thing I admire about the Saints players, is that when a couple of injuries occur, lads who have been off their best step up. We saw it with Lees at the back end of last season, when Walmsley was out and after Walmsley and Passi were ruled out a couple of weeks back and things looked tricky, Welsby seems to have woke up big time. He’s needed to, because it’s been a couple of scrappy wins and without him, they’d have been 2 defeats but it shows a really strong mentality throughout the squad.

We were right at the front as my 12 year old lad was with me and my mates 5 year old came with us so we got in really early to stand at the front.

The Lees one was fine, clearly comes off the Salford player first. I thought he was inconsistent both ways, at one point after a Salford try Makinson says to the touch judge “Sir every tackle they are doing is a shoulder charge” you could hear him from where we were. Delaney (who was superb) was targeted a few times and high shots were let go and they slowed the ruck down too.

With any ref, supporters from both sides will find fault.

Was good to see Partington engaging in some banter with the Saints fans.