You have to hand it to Wellens, the guy is a model professional and a great and loyal servant of his club. Many players get nowhere near fulfilling their potential. Wellens has done superbly to overcome the limitation to his game caused by his lack of pace, he really has been the best player he could possibly be.

I would say though that the fact that a player as hampered by his lack of pace as Wellens is could be classed as one of the best SL players of the last decade is evidence that the gap between Eng/GB and the Aussies is wider than it was in the early 90s. (See my sig for an unfortunate and hilarious comparison made between Wellens and the truly gifted Davies).

Wellens is not and never has been world class; no one could fail to be impressed by what he has achieved despite his lack of pace but it is a damning indictment of the British game that he has been one of its outstanding players in recent years.

I think to be fair to Wellens he looks a bit faster now than he did earlier on in the season. I don't know if he was carrying a knock but e.g. when we played them at Trailer Park Wellens looked very slow but last Friday he looked to be back to where he was a season or two ago.

He was the best FB in the World wasn't he?