Quote: The Avenger "I’m going to give a special mention to Renouf Atoni!
He took a lot of stick during the first half of last year but boy oh boy does he look a different player to then, even better than he was alongside Fifita. Not only has his workrate increased but so has his quality, he’s carrying the ball hard and takes a lot of stopping, getting quick play the balls which are leading to us looking very dangerous straight after he’s taken a carry. But he’s also doing a lot of running off the ball taking a defender away from the man receiving the ball.
Hes started the season really well'"
Can’t disagree with any of that. Sometimes it goes to show that not all players from overseas fire at their best straight away. Whitbread was the same, he was average for 6 months then found some form.
Very happy with Atoni and he’s clearly leading the pack from the start with Bowden.
Just on the above, Uele and Vagana (even Boothroyd) have all seamlessly fit in and seem to be improving. You can see how physically fit they are and I hope we maintain those levels of fitness because it is very useful having plenty left in the tank when under pressure late in second half.
Kudos to our conditioner and players for the shape they are in. I haven’t seen a single player blowing or on their haunches.
