Re: Ashton Sims : Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:47 am  

TF and the wire wrote:

Sims of Clarke have had much impact so far, but I'm sure they'll come good soon. As mentioned previously, if you want to criticise one of our props, go for Asiteasy, he's been here a year and done very little.

Half backs, yes we are worried.Myler is not creative enough, our kicking game is non-existant. We have a few who can play HB but we are struggling to get a permanent effective combination. Surely we should be applauded for bringing in a local lad in O'Brien.

Early days yet.

We're in the same boat.

Looking at HKR yesterday they have better halves then Wigan and Wire (and plenty of other teams) but to do that they've had to go overseas. It's the same for Saints and Catalans.

The quality of English halfbacks at the moment is dreadful. The basics of passing and kicking simply aren't good enough.

Re: Ashton Sims : Mon Mar 02, 2015 12:53 pm  

Quite right, I find the standard of British half backs at the minute rather depressing. Us Wire fans mourned the retirement of Briers as if he'd passed away - but for me there was a feeling that he was the last of his ilk and completely irreplaceable by anyone British (maybe Widdop apart). Is it a coaching thing / the way the game is being played at the moment or just a coincidental barren spell?

Re: Ashton Sims : Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:51 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

We're in the same boat.

Looking at HKR yesterday they have better halves then Wigan and Wire (and plenty of other teams) but to do that they've had to go overseas. It's the same for Saints and Catalans.

The quality of English halfbacks at the moment is dreadful. The basics of passing and kicking simply aren't good enough.

Completely agree.

Slightly OT but i said something similar when Tomkins moved from six to Full Back. We've not had a player with Sam's skill set come through at six in many, many years. A world class British 6 is a once in a generation+ find and i still don't think it was the right decision to move him from a position we are historically weak in.

Re: Ashton Sims : Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:35 pm  

And certainly in SL, if not in the NRL, I suspect 6 would still be his best position.

After all, he plays it now half the time!

Bur yes, real quality English halves in recent years (I'm not counting Sinfield), there's only been Danny Brough since Lee Briers. And he's getting on.

Re: Ashton Sims : Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:19 pm  

Its pretty obvious that SL halfbacks don't put as much practice into skills such as kicking as their NRL counterparts. Kicking is such a vital part of the game it amazes me that SL halfbacks so often kick poorly even on 'simple' last tackle kicks such as clearances. By contrast Adam Reynolds looked a very basic halfback until last season, but from day one he had a superb kicking game, both long and short. I'd say that part of the game is down to a combination of coaching and quite simply putting in the hours of practice required.

As for passing, I don't know. Maybe too many halfbacks don't get a chance to act as generals in the juniors? Seems to me that bigger, stronger players tend to dominate highlights reels from junior games - as they did when I used to watch the Colts way back (often loose forward types). Perhaps coaches should do more to enforce structured plays at junior level, even if that's at the expense of results sometimes?

Re: Ashton Sims : Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:47 am  

Really agree with you about Reynolds. Couldn't understand the enthusiasm for him in Australia from fans and critics; he always had a great kicking game, but seldom ran the ball and offered little else. He is spreading his wings now, though. His namesake at the Dogs (is he still there?) is little more than a hard-running rough-house, so no great example to your budding young halves there either. And these are Origin halves, the best in the best comp in the world?