This is becoming a farce. Either recall him from his loan or put him up for sale. For all the support he gets on this site few would have Hampshire before Williams or Smith and as a fullback we all known that he is a stopgap. If he had not taken his ball home he would have played in every game this season for us rather than not getting game time at Cars. Now that he has had a chance too show what he can do he is in the same predicament, as at Wigan, as a second choice half being asked to play fullback. I do not really care if he should "come back to haunt us" as both the club and player need to move on. If he does not want to play for us then we should respect his wishes and start looking for the next big thing. Hampshire is at an age where he knows that he needs to play or become irrelevant.

he never took his ball home, just not rated by wane and he wants to play.

Yeah, but he wants to play in his own stipulated position. Which is a luxury granted to one or two really special players, and almost never to kids.

Prior to going out on loan, he had two starts at stand off (one when we rested more or less the whole team the week after winning the CC '13, one when Williams got injured in the warm up) and twenty starts at full back. Can you name one other player, young or otherwise, who is almost always picked out of position when trying to break into the team? The only other one i can think of recently was Gelling when he kept getting picked on the wing, no surprise he only looked any good once we moved him to centre.

Rocky struggles under the high ball, and has more or less no chance at making it at Wigan as a full back given that we have just signed Sam Tomkins. I really don't think he's being unreasonable by asking to get a crack in his best position. People are saying he has failed to convert his academy promise into Super League but how many full SL games has he even played in the halves? Maybe 4 starts in 4 seasons between his time here and at Cas, hardly enough to use as a basis to write him off.

The problem is, we have no idea how he looks in the halves in training for example. I'm not one to say the coach is always right, but he is the one who sees him every day. Maybe he just doesn't see him as a half in super league, if there is someone else who is playing/training better than him, then why would you pick Hampshire in the halves based on previous reputation.

If Williams was fit, I'd drop Smith in a heartbeat.

I'm not writing him off. I wish we could hang onto him. But barring an injury to Smith, I don't see how he's going to get a regular shot in his favourite position.

I still think he's being badly advised by someone. It's got to be worth staying at Wigan and plugging away. Maybe his home-county has some extra appeal for him, but it didn't take Cas long to shunt him to full-back either.

He's not going to get a shot in his favoured position thanks to Mr Wane and his false promises.
How is it worth stopping at Wigan and plugging away when you don't see him getting a shot? Powell told him when he went to Cas that he would have to take his chances when they came along, he was moved from the halves to full back when Dorn got injured, and fwiw neither his dad or his agent have wrongly advised him.

Ah ... so it's his dad who's advising him to leave Wigan?

Well, I suppose that's that then.

I suppose on the basis of your last post, it's not difficult to see how you come up with five when you add two and two together.
You do the lad a great disservice by implying that he's not capable of making his own decisions.

Hampshire isn't tough enough for SW.
If your tough and try your in even if you are incapable of making a break - Isa being the classic example of this. How many games has he played and how many breaks has he made? How Wigan fans have written Isa off? Why aren't Wigan fans writing Isa off because he has had far more opportunities than Hampshire and has done jack shoite so far this season.

SW's general attitude towards backs was mildly funny in the beginning but now I find it quite alarming particularly if we bring in Carney yet another Southern Hemisphere player with zip between his ears but who will run through a brick wall.

Gregson looks a decent sort but has zero speed and offers very little to the halfs particularly with Smith there as well. They must be the slowest pairing in our history but SW seems totally oblivious.
Wakefield if they can tackle are nailed on for Sunday and unless we get some players back Cas will fancy their chances next week. Could be a profitable double.

I will never know what the truth is but the obverse is that those calling for him to included must have been asking for somebody else to be dropped. To hear Wigan fans demanding that the then England halves be moved aside seemed a bit perverse. We would have been negligent not to have tied Smith and Williams down to long term contracts but the upshot was that Rocky was never going to get the chance he craved with us. I have no doubt that he will become a competent professional but at this point he has not earned the right to set his own terms. Wane does not rate him, and that may be his weakness as a manager, but at the end of the day he makes the decisions. If I was Rocky I would accept that he has been the victim of circumstance and look to do what I think is best for myself, which is probably to go to where I could play in my favoured position.

Yep, he could still be recalled now, if Wane wanted to; instead he prefers to play Gregson in the position, which seems to send a clear message.

So if everyone is so unhappy with Wigan who twisted his arm to sign that three year contract only a few months ago.

That I don't understand.

What the f*ck are you on about? Isa's played what, 5 games for us? and probably 4 of them off the bench!

Honestly, Hampshire's fan boys are f*cking unbearable. He's so overrated on here.