PopTart wrote:
TCs assessment to me is saying he is good at a lot of things but not at putting his winger away.
He is better than most, unfortunately people want him to be more.
I know it is a stretch but I woud use Mal Meninga as a comparison. If you watch him in the early 80s he is one of the worlds best centres but what he was good at was breaking the line. His winger, whether Sean Day or Eric Grothe got the ball after he broke the line.
He didn't start putting his winger away before the line until later in his career when he started slowing down.
For me Ryan is the same, just probably not quite on the same scale.
He will break the line more often than not, and that is something many teams don't have. His winger won't get the money ball that puts him away until after the break is made. Not a bad thing in itself but doesn't look good when the defense gets you first.
I think that makes him a good centre who will score lots of tries. It doesn't make him Matt Gidley......but then Mal Meninga wasn't Steve Rogers or Brett Kenny either!?!?
Thank God you know that, or else i would be calling for the men in white coats!
In my opinion Atkins needs a real creative secondrow inside him if he is to be anything more than a bit part player. I think he will be amongst the last in a line of outside backs that rely on there physical game to get them to the top domestically. Its great having the physical gifts but if you lack game smarts then you are never going to be a top player. More and more these days the juniors seem to have these game smarts and I think Atkins has potentially been let down by his coaches earlier in his career as he was a developing player.
He is a strong player and hits the line hard but nullify this with a half decent defensive centre and you can almost shut down as an attacking threat whichever side of the field he is on. If they can relight the combination he had with Solomona though then there could be some great things to come, but once he retires Wire will be having to look for a very gifted ball handling backrow like Lautiti if they are to see anything other than mediocrity from Atkins in my opinion.
