They should pay the fine in 1p's, just to the RFL off.

He's 20, not 17. You pick basic defence up when your in the under 10s. Its alright going on about how many tries he's scored, but how many has he let in? Against Harlequins for example, he came back for one game and failed to not just catch, but even jump for the high balls put to him, resulting in 2 tries. First we fired him off to Cas, and now Widnes, please explain to me why we would do this if he was a fantastic winger?? He's fast, thats it. There's nothing more I love to see than a young Wiganer coming through the ranks and playing for his home town club, but on this particular occasion he's made it clear he's to much of a liability, and as I said, in my opinion will end up in NL1.

Someone knows his mini from his mod

You can't fault his desire to make it as a wigan player and for that i wish he would. However he is, and never will be good enough. He lacks what many people refer to as a 'rugby brain', that instinct to be in the right place at the right time whether it be in attack or defense. However good the coach that cannot be tought. National league is his level and, with regret that is where he will end up.

He will be a SL winger for his career, Cas would have him in a heartbeat. He has much more than pace as well, he has fantastic strength and agility. Sadly i think there are issues beyond his playing that will ensure he does not full fill his potential at Wigan.

Is this the same Ainscough that some said HAD to be the side above Roberts?

I cannot understand this argument. i am a big fan of Roberts and his form this year has been awesome, but in his first season he struggled and showed some massive frailties same with Richards in his first season to be fair. Bear in mind these 2 were top class experienced NRL players when they came to us, what was their issue confidence, so many are quick to slate a junior player with obvious ability but certain flaws, and wonder why he struggles.

The same people slated Pryce who with a run of games has gained confidence and opinion changes.


The best though is Goulding who has walked 95% of his tries in all year and been shakey on defence to say the least but some make him out to be top class.

I do not live in Wigan, but I can only assume Ainscough must have upset a lot of people off the field to get the stick he does after the returns he has provided, and the latitude offered to other lads in his position.

Neither can I understand the logic in this apparent anti-Ainscough bitterness, though I suspect it stems from something else.

Last season, when everything still seemed to be going wrong at Wigan, Ainscough emerged as a poster boy for many of those who were getting fed up with Brian Noble. Ainscough, they (rightly, IMO) said, did not deserve to be dropped after the start he made to the season. He became the living embodiment of Nobby's weird and ultimately unsuccessful selection process. To a lesser extent, Ainey also became a whip with which to beat Ian Lenagan - it was argued that we should never have signed Amos Roberts when we had such a good young winger in the camp already (though I still believe that Roberts was at least partly signed as cover for full back).

Others, of course, disagreed (both about Nobby and IL). These were entrenched positions, which for a brief time brought out the beast in everyone. Every disagreement about the relative merits of the coach and the chairman seemed to come back to the Ainscough issue. A similar thing had happened a year earlier with Mick Higham, though that dissipated after he left. Ainscough is still with us, of course, so that dispute is still raging, and, if anything, getting more and more personal.

My own view is that Roberts has now turned out to be a far better player than Ainscough, so that specific argument is over. But Pryce getting Ainscough's place is a slightly different matter. He has been poor throughout his time with us up until a couple of weeks ago, yet seems to have been given more chances than Ainscough. This may be down to something as simple as us not being able to loan Pryce out, though it could also be that Maguire and Wane see something in him that they don't (yet) see in Ainscough.

As I trust Maguire a lot more than I'd come to trust Nobby, I'm happy to accept their judgement. But I still don't see why so many fans are now coming out with the "I always thought Ainscough was crap" argument.

I think he deserves a chance. But only if he can keep whatever made him fight under control because last thing we need is a sending off in a big game.
I think he has potential i mean just look at the form he had at cas he was free scoring. I think if he startss to jump for the kicks etc he will start fielding some, grow in confidence and then he will/should be brilliant.

I think people need to remember that even 20 is still young. Just because we Wiganers can remember the likes of Robinson, Farrell and Rads being test class by age 20 doesn't mean every player who hasn't reached a certain standard by that age is washed up. Look at Goulding - when he started I was thinking "this kid looks good" but by the end of last season I was thinking "we gave him a try but he's just not good enough". Now look at him. Does his game still have flaws? Yes but he's come on leaps and bounds for all that. There's every reason to hope Ainscough will do the same.

Well last season he deserved to be in there in place of Roberts and had Madge been the coach last season and both players displayed the form they did, anyone who things Roberts would not have been dropped by Madge for Ainscough is living in cloud cuckoo land IMO. Roberts looked disinterested at times and that is not going to get players games in Madge's Wigan team.

This year as well all know things are different and Roberts looks a different player and that is really all there is to it so coming out with statements like the above is just ignoring the facts IMO.

I agree with Jonh and Crunchers sentiments on this entirely. There is nothing unreasonable in what they have to say including the relative merits of Ainscough and the other players discussed but for the life of me I do not understand why Ainscough gets the stick he does.

Dave

IMO ainy is certainly superleague standard. Will it be at wigan is open to debate. He cant get in the team right now and seems to be overtaken by goulding and pryce. I have no real doubt that ainy could do the job goulding is doing, given the oportunity.He is just not been given the chances. He does have some serious defencive lapses , the high ball being one of them. He would be someone that gets pepered every time. I would like to see him given a run of games to see how he looks then a decision if he is good enough can be properly made.

I've never been quite sure why Ainscough seems to not be everyones cup of tea. There seems to be an element of our fans that actually want to see the lad crash and burn which I find very strange. He had an unbelievable time of it last year and was so unlucky really not to play in more games towards the end of the season but Noble had his reasons and Roberts was playing ok.

In terms of Ainscough's playing ability he is a very simple sort of a winger that just takes scoots from dummy half and finishes trys very well but he is a handfull and has enough about him to have a very good career here at Wigan. He will have to bide his time and be patient but he's only young and he's playing under a coaching staff that will hopefully get the required level of improvment out of him. If he doesn't want to hang around and he's causing problems away from the field then i'm sure Maguire and Wane will deal with him how they see fit.

His reputation with the fans reminds me of how Kevin Browns was after his initial honeymoon period.

With Kevin Brown, everyone had been told how superb he was going to be, and when it became clear that he wasn't, there was a backlash. A slightly cocky attitude didn't help.

With Ainscough, I think the hostility is more evident on this message board than on the terraces, and I wonder if that is more to do with an antipathy to those posters who promote him?

I am sure that has something to do with it.

Dave