Or he goes to the NRL and kills it. The true test.

Saints are poop and always will be

Going back to how this thread started...............how good would Walmsley be if he played the ball where he was tackled and not 5 yards further forward?

I actually this sometimes hinders us as well, as he slows the play the ball down by messing about and remonstrating with the ref. It's probably my only complaint with him that far too often he looks up and delays the play the ball instead of just getting on with it. Not saying he never moves off the mark, he certainly does. That's a rule that winds me up as no refs seem to bother much with it. But specifically with Walmsley, if you watch him you'll see it's a hindrance to us as much of a benefit at times, as he does faff about and actually slows the play the ball down.

My comment was very much tongue in cheek, but it can go both ways with him I suppose. I see plenty play the balls from him that allow Roby to scoot away because AW has moved away from the markers.

He's a great player BTW and hopefully smashes the Aussies all over the place in the world cup.

During your game against Hull Leon Pryce picked up on this, he said all through his career he's struggled playing the ball, maybe it's just the sheer size of the bloke that makes him struggle with his balance and he can't help but move forward

Yeah possibly. When we first signed him he was really clumsy with it. So whether it's a conscious effort to take an extra second and make sure he doesn't make an error I don't know. To me it looks like he's always having a little look up before playing it.

You couldn't, because they are not.

The point being made is because of the low standard of Super League it is hard to say whether someone is world class or not. With Walmsley, it looks like he is. But until you show it on the biggest stage continually: NRL, WCC, GB against Aus/NZ, then its just ifs and buts.

That is the same for any player in Super League.

Quite simple this really:

Bateman has proven he has World Class ability as indicated by his personal accolades in the NRL. Being awarded best back row in the best competition puts you into that bracket. His previous 18 months form is a different discussion.

Walmsley absolutely bosses Super League no question, and consistently at that. He may well be World Class, but his way of showing it will be to turn up in the World Cup which he hasn’t done yet. And by turn up I mean in the way the likes of Faz, Scully, Peacock, pre-Wigan Fielden, and Sam Burgess etc did…not just be solid at that level, excel at that level and rightly be branded World Class. Hopefully he can prove that to us all in a single tournament this autumn. I’d love nothing more for him to absolutely kill it against Tonga, NZ, and the Aussies.

There’s always some will say that…but IMO during that period of Faz & Scully we (GB) had the best pack in the world. We just didn’t quite measure up in the halves & outside backs consistently.

Agree. We always seemed close back then and then they'd pull something out of nothing.

I’ve thought about Walmsley and his dominance in this league a few times and considered how I rate him in comparison to that real golden trio of props we had in Peacock, Fielden and Morley and he could well be every bit as good and he’s actually dominating this league more than they did in their days but I can’t put him up with them and it all comes back to the games they did it in. The bigger the game, the better those guys were. The tougher the opponent, the more they raised their games. The memories I have of those guys are all from test matches and world club challenges (and the NRL in Morley’s case) and that is where they built their legacy and left every single fan who watched them in no doubt that they were World Class.

We had those 3 and then some crossover with Graham and Sam Burgess and they were 5 absolute world class players. There’s a chance Walmsley is in that bracket but if he sticks to dominating superleague and an average one at that but he doesn’t have those stand out international moments, dominates a world club challenge or three or goes and smashes an NRL stint, there’s no way he’s going down with those 5.

I would put Lockers in with them 5