www.mirror.co.uk/sport/sport-fro ... 5-23258154 I must admit i'm baffled by his England snub as well

www.mirror.co.uk/sport/sport-fro ... 5-23258154 I must admit i'm baffled by his England snub as well

Because he'd have to defend? 2.5 missed tackles a game in the centres is criminal.

Maybe if he played for Saints,Leeds,Wigan he may get his chance it seems to be th way in, no matter how well you are playing at the time.

Stiched Tom Briscoe up good and proper in the last derby.

You don't have a clue.

49 missed tackles in 20 games! Almost 3 times as many as Bridge, Shenton, Atkins or Yeaman. But of course, apparent "stitching up" of an FC player is the yardstick!

Clueless indeed.

He scores more than he lets in so whats the problem? on form Him & Yeaman should be first choice. after all you need to score to win not just defend.

Do you honestly think Yeaman and Welham would score more than they let in when up against Inglis & Hodges?

FWIW, I don't think Atkins, Shenton or Bridge would either.

The point he is making is that for international selection at centre you have to be pretty good in defence. Welham has been in the "top" 10 worst players in the competition for missed tackles in each of the last 3 seasons, missing 197 tackles in 67 matches, ie almost 3 per game and more than twice as many as Yeaman. I don't think either of them are genuine international class centres, but you're not seriously ridiculing East Hull FC Fan's hypothesis that Welham's non selection is attributable to his defence, are you? Really?

Feel free to point out any inaccuracies in what I've posted.

I am a big fan of both Yeamo and Welham, they both came from the same amateur club

Yeamo is on top form again and should be included this year imo....Welham has to improve in defence, once he achieves this he should undoubtedly be looking at international honours....Defence is just as important as offence, personally I actually put defence higher than offence in my ratings of any player, hence I think young Hougton is the bee's knee's.

Not trying to make excuses, but Dobson defends 1 in from Welham. This obviously doesn't make life easy for him. If he defended outside Newton I dont think you'd see as many missed tackles. However, to be international quality defence is one area for development.

In partial mitigation, a good number of Welham's missed tackles are down to him rushing out the line to kill an overlap - if he gets enough on a hit to prevent the pass and slow the opposition down for cover to get across, it is a brilliant piece of play, even if it is technically a missed tackle.

And he is under orders to do so.