Personally I really want to see how Tomkins would go as a halfback. Its a position England are desperate for and Tomkins has all the skills required (except possibly kicking). As for his defence, I think his one on one is fine, and I'd say there are plenty of SL halfbacks around who are a lot more shaky than him. Its obviously Wigan's call, but I'd love to see him at 6. Regardless of where he plays though, you also need Williams to kick on. I'm fed up of seeing young English halfbacks with obvious talent just stop developing or even go backwards. If Luke Gale is the best we can hope for we'll never beat Australia.

With a Wigan hat on its obviously great to see Williams still here but with an England hat on, he’d have been far better served going testing himself in the NRL.

Superleague isn’t forcing him to work on his weaknesses. I thought it was one of his biggest weaknesses that probably held him back from going and that’s a lack of confidence.

No where near goof enough to play NRL. Not even a stand out in SL.

Eh?

We on about Williams? I get it that you may not think he’s good enough for the NRL but to say he’s not a stand out in superleague is absurd. Young player of the year in 2016 and the top assist maker in 2017 whilst not having his best season.

The problem for him is it’s probably too easy in superleague for him sometimes.

Morgan has done a lot of work alongside Powell as a half last few months, not sure whats happening now GW is back in full swing...it would be massively surprising to see him playing as a back-up full back to Sam (who is nailed in as #1). Sarge will now be covering any ST absences.

I would not be surprised to see Esc/GW as our starting halves with Powell as starting #9. Powell will plug any absences in the halves with Tommy/Ganson in at #9. Only spanner in the works as far as I know is the enigma around Jake Shorrocks...

On a separate, unrelated to the topic note, Tom Davies is looking immense! Going to have a massive season!

Well if Wane's idea of change is to play Powell at 7 I can't see how that is going to improve the team. In many ways he is younger version of Matty Smith in that he has many of the same limitations he had to his game, lack of pace, lack of vision, not particularly good passer. Don't know what Wane sees in him but he is a player Wane will always pick. I suppose, like Sarginson he trains the house down and that sort of thing counts for a lot in Wane's world. Someone on the other forum quipped we could sign Cameron Smith and Wane would spell him with Powell just to get Powell in the side. That made me smile.

The only "logic" I can see as to why he would end up at 7 is because Wane has decided to play Sam T at 1. Given Sam T has voiced the desire to stick to playing 1, I wonder who is picking the team!

I am with you on Powell but if he can develop his kicking game then he will be a shoe in from SW's perspective.
I suppose we wont know until the squad numbers are announced.

He's no where near a stand out. His overall game is way below that of an NRL halfback. At times he shows flashes of brilliance, but that's coupled with often headless chicken moments, wrong option plays etc.

He's totally overrated if you think he's anywhere near NRL. There's young halves coming through over there that are noticeably better.

I disagree. At the start of last season he was tearing teams apart week after week and creating tries for fun. His form dipped when the team around him fell apart with injuries and we had practically a reserve backline around him. It seemed to me he felt like he had to it everything by himself and if anything, he tried too hard.
Williams would cope with NRL rugby very well in my view.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Even at SL he wasn't a stand out for me, a stand out would be how Sam was per-NZW. Even when he came on for England he looked terrible, headless chicken in full-force. Can't see any NRL clubs bashing our doors down to sign him as starting half.

I fail to see any half in the NRL who isn't better than George.

I think GW had 2 problems last year. Firstly the whole team struggled with injuries and some would argue a negative playing style. Secondly and probably more importantly when you sign a new deal and become a ‘marquee’ he suddenly had to deal with the added pressure that comes with it, the pressure of expectation. For me the marquee status came too soon for him, although he started the season very well his decision making at times was poor, something that is not unusual in a player, particularly a half of his age.

I believe once he learns to deal with that pressure and gets back to playing his own game we’ll see a big improvement from the back end of last year. He is still young and has plenty of development in him as he becomes older and wiser.

Agree that he didn't finish on top form by his standards, but I also think the marquee player tag probably had more effect on fans expectations of him than it did on the player himself.

Set up 5 more tries than anyone else in the league, in a team that struggled for big parts of last season. Fair enough, it doesn't tell the whole story, but seems to me that even a George not firing on all cylinders was still doing the business. Could probably say the same about S. Tomkins too come to think of it.