Its a tough one, Ainscough on the wing opens up the kick to the corner and against Matt King last year he got his pants pulled down!



Now i know defence has been sharpend up, but we not seen how our kick defence is yet, but a 5'8" lad against a 6'3" lad, there only gonna be one winner.



However our options are:-



vievers at full back, big game for a debut, and briers is no mug with the ball kicking.

Ainscough, bit of a midget up against king, (if he plays on that wing), but good in attack.

Pryce on the wing, this has a definate possiblity of happening as he a big lad, and can match king. That being said, there is a massive possibility

he may trudge off after ten mins with a twisted sock, which will only give him less confidence. However he may get a bit more support away

from home! (btw before anyone gets on my back about showing some support, im joking, he does seem to be unlucky with injury though!)

What exactly was this 'cock up' as you put it?



Grimmy even just the turn of phrase you use to describe a few players makes me feel that no matter what they do or how they actually perform, in your eyes something will always be wrong.



He was also really good in defence last night to.

It was phelps's fault that we didn't score from those two right wing breaks from the second half. Roberts would have scored from both of those if he hadn't had to go to full back.

I couldn't understand some of the comments about Phelps in the off season tbh. There were quite a few people on here questioning his position at fullback not only for the long term but for the start of this season aswell. There must be a few short memories because the lad was outstanding last season and a couple of dodgy pre season preformences wasn't going to change my mind about how good he is and how good he can become!



He's not only the most creative fullback in superleague but he's one the most creative players overall and is a constant threat from there chiming into the line. I've never quite got some of the criticisim of his one on one defending either. I've never seen him be made a mug of like the guys before him like Mathers and Ashton were.



Now we just need some good news on his injury

People will soon realise how important he is to us if he's missing for an extended period. I was impressed with how Roberts adapted to that position but he won't give us the creative skill Phelps has that by my reckoning has instigated half of our tries so far when he's been on the field.



My best guess judging from watching Phelps last night after the game and Mcguire's comments would be a 6-8 week layoff and that might be optimistic. A massive blow, make no mistake.

Really good - negative turn of phrase? I'm on about when they got an overlap on our line, Phelps slid over and both he and Roberts took their centre, neither wrapped the ball up, Phelps got handed off completely and the centre got the ball away with the winger in space, luckily the pass was bad and went to touch. It was the whole team's fault for not sliding but I was looking for him to either come in and stop the offload or slide out and get to the winger, he did neither. As I said Phelps was really good in attack before he went off and if he was fit I'd have him in at full back again but I still worry about his defence that's all. He's not Mathers but he's not solid either.

Some people seem to have this view of a fullback that they can magically stop every single try against the side. He does a good enough job in defence and it's not even an issue for me.



We even used to let the odd one in when Rads was fullback.

Grimmy you're either showing ignorance or bias here....I'm not sure which. How on Earth do you make this into 'a cock-up'?

Sorry everyone, he's a quality attacker therefore everything he does is in defence is also class and he should be man of steel. Jeeez, why does everything have to be black or white on here? Is it not possible for a player to be a great attacker and a below average defender?

It was an error that 9 times out of 10 would have let a try in. He brings far more positives than negative but it doesn't mean the sun shines out his backside.

His defence is fine though.



He's not Rads in defensive terms but then who is? Phelps does the job and lets very few people past him imo and when added to his attack that turns him into an outstanding long term prospect at fullback.



The only problem I have with him at times is he looks a little loose under the high ball but he can work on that and we shouldn't forget he's pretty new to the position.

No reason Phelps cant the the wigan full back for years to come IMO