Re: Future England Internationals : Wed Nov 20, 2013 2:47 pm  

Its always hard to tell with the younger players coming through until they have performed consistently well for a few seasons and fully proven themselves. 2 years ago, I would have backed Foster to mount a challenge for an England wing shirt in the near future and now I wouldnt even rate him in the top 10 English wingers in SL. The likes of Swift, Percival, Jones, Walmsley etc all definitely have the potential but are nowhere near ready for the England squad just yet imo and would rather see them develop more before throwing them in.

I think (Roby aside), the other Saints players who could be ready would be Lomax (would rate him a far better prospect at 1 than Hardaker), Makinson (although dont think he is quite ready to dislodge Hall, Charnley or Briscoe just yet), Amor and LMS again (if he performs like he did back end of last year). Judging on the current plight of centres, I would also add Turner to that list as whilst he struggles defensively, he is no worse than Watkins is (who has been a big disappointment in the World Cup for me) and a lack of quality competition at centre could see him given chance if he has a good enough season (a la Cudjoe this year)

Re: Future England Internationals : Wed Nov 20, 2013 10:08 pm  

I was just checking some super league stats (I know they can be misleading) .
Percival in only 72 carries made 13 clean breaks - so nearly 1 in every 5 times he touched the ball , which looks totally off the scale . The next best I could see was Charnley with 35 from 383 or roughly 1 in 11.
If he can keep up that sort of attacking flair and strengthen up , surely he is nailed on for international honours - let's face it , he hasn't got much to beat at centre.

Re: Future England Internationals : Wed Nov 20, 2013 11:10 pm  

yogi bear wrote:

I was just checking some super league stats (I know they can be misleading) .
Percival in only 72 carries made 13 clean breaks - so nearly 1 in every 5 times he touched the ball , which looks totally off the scale . The next best I could see was Charnley with 35 from 383 or roughly 1 in 11.
If he can keep up that sort of attacking flair and strengthen up , surely he is nailed on for international honours - let's face it , he hasn't got much to beat at centre.

I'm still concerned about his size and it's fit in the centres. I can't imagine what Francis Meli and Junior Sa'u would do to him if he was defending in the centre. It'll be interesting to see if he's grown any by the start of next season. He could do with eating his tea at Sia's every night.

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:01 am  

He kept Ablett quiet on his debut. I know he's not great or a natural centre but he's a hell of a lot bigger and better built.

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 2:23 pm  

As impressive as Percival has been I agree that he needs a fair bit more size before he becomes a regular. He doesn't need to be massive, similar to Goulding would be plenty big enough without taking away any of the pace he has. Really excited by his future.

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 4:49 pm  

SFW wrote:

As impressive as Percival has been I agree that he needs a fair bit more size before he becomes a regular. He doesn't need to be massive, similar to Goulding would be plenty big enough without taking away any of the pace he has. Really excited by his future.

Goulding is just a solid SL centre tho. Is it his size that holds him back internationally etc?

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 5:32 pm  

St. Rughead wrote:

He kept Ablett quiet on his debut. I know he's not great or a natural centre but he's a hell of a lot bigger and better built.

He most certainly did.

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 5:37 pm  

Albion wrote:

Goulding is just a solid SL centre tho. Is it his size that holds him back internationally etc?

No, he's held back by a lack of ability

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:15 pm  

SomersetSaint wrote:

No, he's held back by a lack of ability

Exactly.

Re: Future England Internationals : Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:27 pm  

Albion wrote:

Goulding is just a solid SL centre tho. Is it his size that holds him back internationally etc?

Goulding is a good wingers centre, but is not a "strike" centre.