It’s not a Thewlis bash, by any stretch. Actually, more of a reason to keep him on position to form those relationships to improve the current issues. But, it’s undeniable that the right side is an issue.
Look at the Lafai try, Thewlis is left defending two players, but has a grab at Lafai and bounces off. Could and should have shut that play down on the half way line. The Leigh game, left against 2 again but gambled on the interception which left Leutele to stroll through untouched and put Charnley in the corner. Untouched 15 yards out. Similar with the Leutele try, he was stranded in the middle of Leutele and Charnley, tackled neither and wasn’t in a position to tackle either.
It’s a tough one, on one hand he needs to keep to his man and trust the inside slide, but there has to be a point where you defend the man closest to the ball when the slide fails. Doing either would be fine, but he’s been in the middle too often. It payed off for the interception at Leeds, but they are few and far between.
That’s before you look at the struggles against Catalan where he was simply bullied by the kicking game.
It’s not a knee jerk, he is a fantastic player and is a long term fixture of this team. But that are is a vulnerability. If I was doing video on Warrington to prepare to play them (And Russel isn’t playing), that area on and outside of Williams would be the absolute lions share of the focus. You don’t fix it by moving him to fullback for a week. You fix it by keeping the combinations together as best as you can. But there needs to be some improvement now we have Nicholson and Williams settled on that side with him, or he may have to come out and work on it in reserves. Put it this way, if Russell, Minikin or even Kevin flippin Penny would have been in those positions, the groans from the stand would have been deafening and this board would have been red hot. Thewlis has credit in the bank because he does a lot well, and has been a victim of the Powell’s right side merry go round, and the on-going Wrench injuries.
