You're entitled to your opinion but to say what Goulding did was easy and laid on a plate for him is a bit rich.
Sam ain't playing for HKR yet Goulding is still laying on try's for his winger.

Classic draw and pass centre play is a pleasure to watch, but seems to be dying out in our game, sadly.

I fully agree about Bowen not providing the spark in attack that Sam T did. And yet, he used to run some great lines in tandem with JT at the Cowboys. For a man of his experience, the lack of creativity in attack is a big disappointment.

Especially as (like Sam T, if you will) he's never been the best defensive fullback in the game, and always had the odd error in him. With Sam, we could say that the tries he makes and/or scores in attack more than made up for it. With Bowen thus far, not so at all.

Nope. I'm definitely still here.

And you are still too small.

Surely Ryan Hampshire has got to be worth playing in the halves now.

Well you're entitled to your opinion, of course, but according to the stats (rlhttps://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player_statsrl) he had the 7th highest try assists of any centre in superleague last year with 11, and that was in his first full season as a centre! Anecdotally I've seen him get away some miracle balls too so the raw ability certainly isn't missing.

If you check those same stats you'll also see that in only a couple of games did he fail to make over a hundred metres and was often up around 200, including a massive 269 against Leeds. He was also in double figures in scoring tries himself (Same as Joel Moon).

Given it was his first full season in the team and has spent the majority of his time here unable to get a game unless he was turning out for the 1st team, I'm not exactly sure what you expected from him. I would suggest he made a pretty good fist of it and, certainly towards the back end of the season, was arguably the form centre in SL.

I'm not arguing he's the finished article...or anything close for that matter...but to say he 'just isn't a centre' based on his one (successful) year in that position is, frankly, stretching a point! If you're referring to THIS season, then hardly any of our players would be good enough so, again, it's an unfair assessment.

I don't know, any more than you do, whether he will push on from last season. However, if he does, he'll once again be at the top end of SL centres. Is that good enough for Wigan? Well, that's an entirely different argument!

I used to really love watching Matt Gidley play. He was a *proper* centre. A dying art, in the NRL as much as here. Jamie Lyon is one of the few nowadays

I must say i feel a bit sorry for matty as he has never been anything but a normal run of the mill scrum half i think we need to play hampshire at 6 as he has that extra pace and skill over williams

I think we need to give Williams a chance in his natural position of 7 and Hampshire at 6. They were the positions they played in together for several years and this is about the only combination that hasn't been tried so far this year, probably because of Wane's fixation about Hampshire's best position being full back as a Mk2 Sam. There may be reservations about their lack of experience, but Matty Smith's experience/ organising ability have not been evident very much this season. In mitigation, he has been playing behind a beaten pack and has not had a regular half back partner, but he has brought precious little to the table and his lack of pace when compared to both Williams and Hampshire is a crucial factor in my opinion. I would like to Smith revert to a bench 9 to spell MM - very much doubt that will happen, but that is what he used to do. Let's give it a try with 2 speedy half backs playing in tandem and let opposing teams worry about that, rather than us worrying about what defensive limitations Hampshire might have if played at 6.

I think hampshires limitions amount to not being able to catch a rugby ball

Caught plenty difficult ones v Hull KR

I think the real problem with Hampshire is Wane, who is so insistent that Ryan will play fullback that it seem to have become a standoff (no pun intended).

It is an utter disgrace that a young player who has played all his junior Rugby at standoff without being given at least a few months in his natural position when he makes the first team is being told that he either plays fullback or not at all.
It took an emergency the other week when Williams broke down in the warm up to a match for Ryan to be included at standoff and since then when Bowen has been in the squad Ryan hasn't even been in the 19.
I was even told the other week that he was informed that if standoff was the only position he wanted to play he could go to Workington on loan for the season.

What I find strange is lack of input and comments of certain posters on here when something controversial comes up.

I agree totally. Hampshire should be given a chance at 6, preferably with Williams at 7. For Wane to justify not picking Hampshire at 6 a few weeks ago because he had not impressed while playing at full back beggars belief. He may never really impress at full back because he isn't a full back!
Also, when did Williams become a 6? He played most of his junior rugby at 7 ( with Hampshire as his half back partner at 6), before becoming a bench hooker last year, again a position he had never played before until last season and which understandably took its toll on him physically. He is then given the number 6 shirt - squad numbers may not always mean everything, but they are a pretty good indicator of a coach's intentions.
This all goes back to the recruitment or lack of it these past 18 months. No real replacement/bench hooker, lack of size in the forwards, no consistent/reliable goal kicker - all of which should have been addressed.

I watched West Tigers and the Titans earlier. They may not be the best two sides in the comp, but oh for a kicker of the quality of Pat Richards or Aidan Cezer.