I was just thinking about which clubs were trying to sign Gareth Ellis and It got me to thinking about Ben westwood..



One year (2004) being Virtually A laughing stock playing on the Wing and looking out of Place.. In fact as I recall we tried to swap him for a Wakey Player in the off season ... Then at the first game of 2005 at London Bronco's Playing as a makeshift prop and looking like the best forward on the pitch.. According to myself Mark M and MrF..



Never looked back since

I said on the VT " Westwood>Ellis"



Ridiculed beyond belief but sod em, i stand by that 100%

To be fair Ellis Has many more Strings to his bow.. But If Its a 100 second rower who likes to terrorise defences.. Its Mr Westwood Everytime

Westwood terrorise's attackers too.

Westwood would have been bracketed along with Ellis had he played for Leeds.

Agreed.. He does seem to be getting his fair share of recognition now though.. Stevo was creaming over him last week...

he could easily stake a claim to be the best all round forward currently playing in superleague.



I don't think anyone would have been able to say that back in 2004... it really is remarkable how far he has come as a player.



I watched on in awe against HKR as he put them to the sword in the last 20 minutes.



if you offered me Ellis in a straight swap there is no way in the world i would take that deal.... not a chance.

Realistically Would you Swap BW for any other second rower in the world on this current form ?

I probably don't watch enough NRL to comment on that in all honesty.... I certainly wouldn't swap him for any other backrower in superleague, that's for sure.

TBH when you look at the imports that other teams have brought in as second rowers in the time that Benny has been with us , i don't think that any of them have been any better in a club role than Benny has for us...they've probably been as good but no better ,although Louis played his heart out & it looks like Mr Waterhouse could be a good buy.

Much as I am a Westwood fan.

Let's not get carried away.

It's a bit reminiscent of Andy Goodway being hailed as the Worlds best RL forward in 1981 - just before the 1982 kangaroos landed.

I would swap for

Sam Thaiday

T Rex

SBW

P Gallon

+ other 2 SRs that play for St George Ben Creagh

Lets not forget BW is better than Waterhouse, but Waterhouse is not a current SOO player

I think logically you have to look at the type & age of the forwards that are likely to be attracted to SL. The likes of Thaiday ,SBW & Gallen are basically of the same mindset as the other players that arrive on our shores...for whatever reason the players that we attract are not at the top of their game & cannot secure suitable contracts in Oz ,& our only hope of attracting the aforementioned stars is for them to be in a similar position or for the salary cap to be raised considerably .

Westwood has to be the stand out player in super league so far for man of steel ! Roby looking good but even I would look good in that saints team ! See how Tompkins goes when they play the better teams ! Think Leeds were concentrating on the WCC when they played the pies !

Benny for MOS

Wire win the treble

Catalans finish second in SL

According to Phil Clarke on Boots n all this week you are wrong.



His stats say that Tomkins is the stand out player in SL so far.



Call me an old cynic if you like but surely its no coincidence that 'Mr Wigans' stats have picked out a Wigan player as the stand out player. I may add that Phil's stats do seem to favour the backs (full backs especially) and would never allow for an equal comparison between backs and forwards. But dont let that get in the way of a good Wigan story.