The give him number 22 or 55 if you want him to be a winger. Don't give him the centres number. He was signed to be a centre, played at centre and was gash at centre.

He wasnt gash, he just wasnt as good as he is on the wing.

He really was gash. So much so we wanted to send him to Wakefield. he wasn't 10% of the player he is at wing/full back.

Pat R was so good, even the Australian media picked up stories of his feats v Salford.

I was surprised but delighted to read last week that he has now passed into the top 10 Wigan RL points scorers of ALL TIME. God, that’s some effort. He could quite easily push his way up that table as well.

Farrell, Botica & Richards. The points he’s racking up he’s going to go down in that bracket of modern legends. He’ll not catch Farrell but maybe Botica is within reach. I can’t recall what his figures were?

He’s quite simply in awesome form. He brings so much to the game. His 2 tries yesterday were crackers. The fend and space he created for himself on the first and his strength and presence of mind to ground the ball with his back to the try line on his 2nd try were a joy to watch

Quote: CAM. "Absolute rubbish. Why would the NRL's top try scoring winger, one of the best under the high ball and has great speed signed to "switch to be a centre"? Even Millward wasn't that stupid. Please stop posting factually incorrect things.'" He was signed to play centre. I think the reasoning behind it was he defended at centre's for Wests with Benji on the wing. It absoloutly destroyed his confidence and when he was finally switched to the wing when Dallas (IIRC) got injured it took him a while to get going. When Nobby gave him the kicking duties in 2008 is when he started to shine. After a bad first year its safe to say Pat has been an outstanding signing for us. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=470

Quote: CAM. "Absolute rubbish. Why would the NRL's top try scoring winger, one of the best under the high ball and has great speed signed to "switch to be a centre"? Even Millward wasn't that stupid. Please stop posting factually incorrect things.'" He was signed to play centre. I think the reasoning behind it was he defended at centre's for Wests with Benji on the wing. It absoloutly destroyed his confidence and when he was finally switched to the wing when Dallas (IIRC) got injured it took him a while to get going. When Nobby gave him the kicking duties in 2008 is when he started to shine. After a bad first year its safe to say Pat has been an outstanding signing for us. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=470

Pat Richards was always likely to play centre in his first season. I'm assuming if he wasn't signed to play centre then it was an oversight by the coach or the board otherwise it was a bit of a mess when we really needed a centre and signed another winger.
Our only other out and out centres in the squad at the time were 17 year old Darrell Goulding, 18 year old Sean Gleeson and 18 year old Johnny Walker.
Kevin Brown played centre a few times during that season but only when there were injuries or someone was dropped, and then ended up at Huddersfield half way through. At the start of the season with a relatively fully fit squad Richards was playing centre and Kevin Brown was seen as a stand off usually on the bench.
Eventually we signed Nathan McAvoy and Dallas got injured (IIRC) which allowed Richards to play on the wing. Also Goulding's good performances kept Richards on the wing until he was dropped.

TOPCLASS KICKER, TOPCLASSWINGER, TOPCLASS TRY SCORER, JUST PLAIN AND SIMPLE TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP CLASS,

Remember his first season everyone was saying what have we signed him for release him let him go. Was he not linked with a move to Wakefield.Good job we didn't let him go

It would be good if someone checked back to 2006 on here, lets see what we were saying about him!

Its an absolute pleasure to pay my money and see someone like Pat show as much passion as he does for our club. Each week its clear he loves playing for Wigan and i would love to see him play his career at Wigan.

To have the current top points scorer and the previous two seasons top points scorer in your side is worth its weight in gold.

Well in Pat and long may it continue!!

In fairness I bet we didn't moan that much at him, because the whole team and club stunk that year. I still say he was one of the better players in that season and had some harsh criticism. I certainly didn't think he was "gash", although Nobby did drop him eventually to the Under 21s. His head must have been spinning at how poor we were.




Think you all have to remember the fact we didn't sign him as a free scoring NRL winger who was part of a Grand Final winning team. He was signed in June 2005 playing for a Wests side that had only won 5 games he played in and lost 7. They only finished the 2005 regular season with 14 wins from 24 games, so when we bought him Wests never looked like Grand Final winning potential. Thus in long term hindsight, whoever spotted him made a cracking judgement.

And for those who question his goal kicking should take note of this

Wigan 65 Tries - 54 Goals
Warrington 62 Tries - 39 Goals

Those extra goals are a big factor in us being four clear of them.

Two absolutely outstanding finishes from Pat on Sunday.

I remember watching Pat rip Brisbane to pieces to score a try for Wests playing on the right centre, a position where he failed to deliver for us.

IMO I think as Pat gets a bit older he could switch if needed to left centre from the left wing spot, I wouldn't mind seeing him do that as it may prolong his career in doing so. (And maybe Ainscough outside of him)

Not everyone, mate.