: Tue May 19, 2009 10:34 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

It's a difficult one as I love watching Tomkins flair , and to be fair too him he is a very good defender for one so slight, but I'd rather be careful with him now and reap the benefits later.

To be fair to Tomkins, he may look slight, but seems to be reasonably robust. His build reminds me a bit of Roby's when he first appeared.

: Tue May 19, 2009 5:12 pm  

Well OK, what about Winterstein who plays for the Broncos? He's not exactly a monster. What about Karmichael Hunt? There's loads of examples we could use here.

: Tue May 19, 2009 6:11 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

They're monsters - no comparison between them and Tomkins/Eastmond/Wheeler.

They don't need to be monsters. If players had to be monsters before they were regularly allowed on the field we'd never have played Longy and Rob Burrow would still be in the reserves! A lean, mean tackling machine is what we want (plus skill and speed, obviously!). Both Eastmond and Wheeler appear to have a rugby brain, though I think Wheeler is the more consistent, and neither is slow. Maybe Wheeler is also the better tackler at present; I'm not 100% convinced Eastmond has got his tackling style sorted yet. Both are good with the boot, though probably not as reliable as Smith. How good either Eastmond or Wheeler is when it comes to kicking in field I don't know because I'm not sure I've ever seen either of them kick except to convert tries (and in Eastmond's case a fabulous drop goal).

I certainly think Wheeler should now have a weekly spot and with our injury list growing ever longer I think he probably has one. We may now also see more of Eastmond. If we do, I wonder if Eastmond will take the same approach as Wheeler and just be happy to play first grade for Saints or will he be impatient to get into his chosen spot?

: Tue May 19, 2009 6:18 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

I wonder if Eastmond will take the same approach as Wheeler and just be happy to play first grade for Saints or will he be impatient to get into his chosen spot?

He looked guenuinely desperate to play at the weekend, gutted to be not playing, so i'd imagine he'd be happy to play prop if you asked him

: Tue May 19, 2009 6:41 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

He looked guenuinely desperate to play at the weekend, gutted to be not playing, so i'd imagine he'd be happy to play prop if you asked him

He could be good at knee attacks or ankle taps!