No it would not be criminal at all, after an initial 10 or so decent games for Saints he has been absolutely dreadful, If you want a real opinion on him go and talk to the Saints fans that watch him week in week out and how they are calling for him to be dropped every week for Matty Smith last season!

Every one of our four halfback options in Brough, Miller, Hampshire and Reynolds are all better than Richardson, put any of them in the Saints side last season and they would do a better job than him.

Yourself and Poptart etc are blinded by the big St Helens lights, jumping on the sky brigade.

So on the one hand, we must develop young British SH's, to enable us to compete in future with the Aussies - but on the other hand, we advocate writing off a young British SH because after a blistering start, he faded a bit towards the end of his first full season in SL?

I admire your confidence - but your logic is faulty.

And FWIW, you're wrong - Richardson is super-talented HB, who'll be in and around SL for years to come; and I'm certain he'll play for England in the future - as he gets experience, becomes a bit more physically robust and learns to pace himself over a season, he'll only get better.

It wasn`t towards the back end of last season though was it? Saints fans were calling for his head from about round 9 of last season, if you go back that far on there independent forum there up in arms, even though they were still blowing every team of the park at that point - What does that tell you?

Offer me Richardson over Hampshire tomorrow and I would tell you where to go, that is my honest opinion. Unlike many I can see what a player brings to a team, I can see a good player in a poor team and I can see a poor player in an outstanding team and I saw right from the off at the back end of last season with Richardson, he might show the odd piece of skill but he will never make a top half back for me.

FWIW I think you are wrong.

Well I mean I guess if you can prove your point correct then fair enough but I'd say Saints fans seemed happy with Richardson after he orchestrated each game to ensure they won the league. I'd also side with Justin Holbrook over yourself.

We coulkd bring in a ruling allowing only one overseas pivot per playing side in SL, which would mean that every side would have to have 3 British (or French for Catalan) pivots in every side.
This way it would focus clubs to work much harder to develop British creative players.
Sure, the quality would reduce in the short term but, the British game has utterly ignored this area for the last 40 years and because a 2/3 choice Aussie is plenty good enough to steer a SL sides around the pitch, most clubs continue to go for the easy option rather than put the time and effort into developing their own.
This leads us nicely into the Williams situation.
So short are we on British pivots that as soon as anyone has a half decent run of games, they are talked about and/or picked for England.
Having said that, Williams wasn't to blame for yesterdays debacle, it was our lack of grunt up front.
I wonder, if the series had been level, would we have tried to bring a couple of different players in or, were changes in either squad not allowed ?

this is an interesting debate.

I have skipped through all the posts and I did not see any reference to Myler the current England Half. Surely there must be someone out there who rates him or are you all of the same opinion as me, in that he is garbage.

Very very overrated

Fully agree ref Williams if he played for Trinity or Hull KR etc he would get nowhere near the international team
Having said that we are 22 years into SL and at times the SL closed shop.
I cant name one British international world class stand off or scrum half and the blame for this lies with every club and every coaching set up in SL.
While ever clubs take the quick fix and sign overseas players be it they are up and coming or past their best and fail to bring young British talent through by giving them game time nothing will change and we will never match the Aussies.

Yesterday our lack of depth in all areas was ruthlessly exposed. Having said that I will take a series win over NZ.
Makinson had an excellent series that said is he really better than Johnstone for my money no and when he made the break in the first half and got caught nobody on that field would have got Johnstone after that break.

For me the last of the great half back combinations was Rob Burrow/Danny McGuire sadly no club is producing these players anymore.
We have coaches coaching error free RL complete sets make the hard yards and build pressure often boring predictable robotic rubbish this is not the game I once knew.

Or you could take the view that the lack of grunt up front was caused by the appalling kicking game displayed by both halves and especially the hooker and the dreadful last tackle options. Much of this game was reminiscent of watching Trinity over the years when many have complained about our lack of fitness when in reality the problem has been our halves' inability to control a game from halfback.

This would be my concern before Williams but hopefully after yesterday's showing from Myler, his international career is over.
On Richardson, he's a good player but a penalty milking grub.

Indeed. Look at Leeds this year gone with him as their 7, and Catalans before that, and England on Sunday. Living off a couple of good years with Warrington when Lee Briers was still playing.

I've noticed over the last sixty or so years if your name is Myler you're put down for an international slot at birth. The current member of the Myler dynasty is just not good enough for England. Yesterday's half back pairing was the poorest I've seen in a long while.

Watching both half backs yesterday perform ,yes behind a beaten pack, makes Me all the more happy with our selection in the Half’s whichever combination the club runs with.

This. How Brough wasn't a dead cert selection at half back over the last 10 years has been a bit of a small tragedy. 3 time Albert Goldthorpe medal winner and the best kicking game possibly ever seen (up there with the best). We should have had a 7 to build a team around and he didn't even get picked most games. Baffling.

Yesterday's half backs were makeshift at best.
In years gone by wed have lost by 50 with just one injury
In tours of the past our second string has been hammered by amateur provincial sides.

We are a lot better off now.

But as has been said, half back is a weak area.
I think it is more about the coaching than the reliance on overseas players.
If Williams parents had moved to Sydney when he was younger he'd be a world beater (by England standards) now.

Let's remember Cooper Cronk started as a replacement Hooker and they made him a world class scrum half. Didn't happen in the first season the had to develop him...... Clearly he was no mug but good coaching at elite standard is important.