Which says it all about your team. The fact that he hogs the ball and makes so many scoots looks great from an individual stats point of view but does it always help the team, its play and its structure, as a whole. Saints fans complain about their lack of threat outwide but are that blinded that they cant see that much of this lack of threat comes from Roby directing play down the middle when there are glaring overlaps out wide. As a hooker I would expect him to be a good support player so its neither here nor there. Also he may make a lot of tackles, as most hookers do, particularly 80 minutes ones like Roby, but he doesnt hit hard and is rarely dominant like someone like McIlorum is. Horses for courses but in a close, tense match McIlorum offers more for me and is more of a starting hooker.







Of course he is. His organising from dummy half is poor and his passing is poor. I have never seen him play well when his pack is not dominant or for England for that matter. Today Saints were camped on Wigan's line and Roby consistently chose the wrong options from dummy half. If the scoot isn on he hasnt a clue.



I find it amusing that you are all only arguing about whether Roby would start in Wigans team or not. You lot obviously conceed that the rest of your team wouldnt get in the Wigan 17.

Quit the drivel you shame our town with your inane wittering.

Yes; unfortunately he is the only player that get's us to the part of the field where you need to be...you need to make yards, and it just happens that 70% of that comes through James Roby. So in answer to your bewildering question: yes making yards does help the team.







Why do you have to hit hard? As long as his tackles are effective, which they are, then I don't see the need for a player like Roby to hit hard.

















Are you actually being serious with the former; the latter is a ridiculous comment considering that you could count on one hand the amount of players who have actually played well for England.







That isn't the hooker's problem...if you actually had half a rugby brain you'd see that our problem lies in the halves.







Possibly because we aren't biased or blinkered unlike some...

The highlight of the game for me was when Clare balding pointed out after the gave that the couple from saints that she said had just got married was infact brother and sister.



Isn't it Wigan people that do that sort of stuff?

Lets put this to a real test



1. tomkins 1. wellens. 1. Hodgson. In a few years time Sam but for now Brett

2. charnley 2. makinson. 2. Riley. Mmmmmm Difficult all 3 are good young players.

3. goulding 3. wheeler 3. Bridge. Brdigey by a country mile.

4. carmont 4. shenton 4.Atkins. Ryan by another country mile

5. richards 5. meli 5. Joel or Pat both good. But Meli



6. finch 6. lance 6. Briers Lee all the way.

7. tommy 7. lomax 7. Myler Tommy.

8. mossop 8. perry 8. Moz. Moz all day long.

9. micky 9. roby 9. Monas M Difficult but on this season for James

10. prescott 10. lafranchi 10. Carvell. Carvell.

11. hansen 11. afro top 11. Trent. Trent.

12. hock 12. TP 12. Super Ben. Super Ben but Hock and TP are very good.

13. o'loughlin 13. wilkin 13. Grix. O'loughlin.

Ah, back to Planet Sanity thankfully.... Wheeler is a #6 all the way - he just doesn't have the basic size or physicality to play #4 at the very highest level but is doing a good job there nevertheless due to his inate talent more than anything else. I just hope to God that Brown can see this, that he can stay fit for some kind of length of time and that we can find a decent kicking/organising #7 to go alongside him.

so you understand possible bias, i am a wigan fan. id argue 1, but could concede being more aware of sams weaknesses than hodgsons. id also argue 8 and 10, as carvell and morley as far as im aware have been worse than last season. neither mossop nor prescott have put together a good run of games this season, but i believe theyll have proved themselves to doubters come the end of the season.

Mossop is far better than Prescott, who'll be no more than an average SL player.

The game (sadly) went as I thought it would. We just seemed to rush things near the line and again we looked weak compared to Wigan. The only thing that surprised me was how many mistakes Wigan made. It was a good thing to, if Wigan had played well it could have been a lot worse. Thanks to the usual suspects, McLorum, Hock, etc for that. In the end scoring was too easy for Wigan once they got near our line.



Looking at Saints it seems to be the same men once again. Hohaia and Wellens killed of our attacks better than any Wigan defender. We looked dangerous when Lomax, Roby or Wilkin have ball in hand but once one of our two handicaps gets hold of it they get tackled, Wigan hold down for 3-4 seconds and any momentum is lost.



Our front row is weak, not one man is guilty but none step up and make serious metres or put on some big hits. We have two good attacking wingers but our centres are unwilling to pass to them and are unable to make a break.



Our backrowers were good as well as Lomax who was forced to over play but did well for a young player.



With exception of Soliola would we notice if all our overseas players got deported??

Come on then, who are all these Saints players that would make the Wigan 17, or indeed the starting 13?

I'd keep Laffranchi too. He didn't have his best game today but he's been our best prop all season and has a great offloading game when on song. But as for the rest I would be very happy to see the lot sent packing, and I include TP in that too as he can be lazy in defence and also in his willingness to take up the ball sometimes. He used to pass to Jammer a lot.



We just miss Jammer in the forwards. We have nobody anywhere near his callibre or with his fire or willingness to take up the ball.