Joel always had the potential to go down as one of the great Wigan forwards, perhaps to be remembered in the same company as Denis Betts. But somewhere en route he really lost his way. For me, and it's an old story, this, his stint in RU seemed to massively blunt him as a rugby player. He went over there the best athlete at Wigan, renowned for his powerhouse runs and 80-minute aggression, and came back a petulant shadow of what he'd once been, having seemingly achieved very little (apart from get rich, though that's irrelevant to the point I'm making).
Memories of Iestyn Harris, Henry Paul, Kyle Eastmond etc. I honestly don't know what they do to these guys in RU to transform them from world-beaters into journeymen.
