Re: catalan stats/captain fantastic : Tue May 12, 2015 8:08 am
Blobbynator wrote:
I've said on Red Vee previously that when everyone is fit we've got a real problem with Wilkin. Making him Captain makes him pretty much undroppable but in reality Vea and Greenwood start as our back rowers and LMS should play at loose. Thompson / Savelio would then be the back row option from the bench, which for me leaves Wilkin as 18th man.
It won't happen and he'll start but we have better options and having Wilkin start when all are fit will hinder us.
He's been a great servant for Saints over the years but he's on the downward curve now whilst some of our other options are getting better.
It won't happen and he'll start but we have better options and having Wilkin start when all are fit will hinder us.
He's been a great servant for Saints over the years but he's on the downward curve now whilst some of our other options are getting better.
We can argue about whether Wilkin deserves a spot when Saints' full strength pack is available as much as we like. The point is practically academic since we are rarely in a position when we can select a full strength pack. Moreover, we've been seriously undermanned in other positions, most notably scrum half, where Wilkin hasn't just filled in - he's been among the best in the position.
I don't agree that Wilkin is on a downward slide. Perhaps he's not the out-and-out forward he once was - but across a broad range of important skills he's improved significantly over the last eighteen months.
Certainly in terms of tactical kicking he's improved out of sight. IMO, part of the reason Saints form has been so mixed over the last few weeks is that Wilkin has not been doing the kicking. Aside from a couple of well-executed grubbers by Walsh against Catalans neither he nor Travis Burns have been anywhere close as effective a kicker as Wilkin was in the first six or seven games.
Watch the videos again. At the start of the season Wilkin took up where we left off at the end of last season - four or five big forward drives and then pinpoint accuracy box kicks penning the opposition back into their own twenty - or better still forcing them to drop out. It worked beautifully and it played entirely to our team's strengths. The last thing our opponents want facing Saints' huge pack is to be forced to cart the ball out from their own goal line under heavy traffic. It's psychologically demoralising.
The moment Wilkin was injured our kicking game went to pot. Burns especially hasn't shown a tenth the leadership that Wilkin was doing early on. Lord knows how many times he's hesitated with the ball in hand on tackle five not knowing whether to stick or twist. Wilkin wasn't making such mistakes. He played the percentages beautifully - like an experienced, intelligent professional.
Sorry guys - he may have missed a few tackles against Catalans. But on the form he showed prior to getting injured he damn well deserves a bit of slack. And the sooner we put him back in charge of tactics the better.