Kyle Eastmond

[Lardinho]

He's a genius. I am talking, of course, about the St. Helens player. He has played for England under 18s, too and not only is he lightning quick with a superb sidestep, he can also kick from the halfway line.

He's only 20 year old and unlike (mostly) all the rugby league players we end up trying to convert. They are either too old to learn the differences in the game, or they are too chosen for positions that need a lifetime of learning. The most successful have played outside centre, full back and wing. John Bently, Jason Robinson, Alan Tait, Alan Bateman. More skilled positions like inside centre, fly half have proven difficult even for the most natural footballers such as Andy Farrell. If we'd have converted him before the age of 25 I think he'd have been a great.

Leslie Vianikolo, too old to convert and make a difference, same with Henry Paul and plenty of others.

Kyle Eastmond is 20, a winger/fullback who can kick as well as the best of them, do we not have any scouts looking at these players? What the hell does Rob Andrew do if he does not go looking for these players? He's done sweet FA since being in charge. Martin Johnson may be **** at selecting, but lets hope his vision is better.

Bring Kyle Eastmond to rugby union, make him a super star. His potential is to be as Dan Carter if he's treated well.

 

[Olyy]

OR....leave him playing league, which is obviously what he wants to do, because he plays that, and not union.

Scouts are, presumably, out looking for union players to sign up, not looking at different sports.

The guys a great up-and-coming League player, who is playing extremely well for England and St Helens, leave him there.

 

[gingergenius]

he's had offers from union teams. he wants to play league.

to be honest, you can't blame him. A player with his running, passing and kicking game is far better suited to league. If he played Union he'd be best playing at centre, but he'd never get picked there because there's an obsession with centres being big and powerful. So he'd get put on the wing where a lot of his talents would be wasted.

 

[bristol-iain]

Why do the RFU think League is the answer? Focus on the talent coming through the clubs and progress with them instead of trying a player from, essentially, a different sport. Only 1 League convert for England has worked out of 6 or seven.

 

[wigan_rlfc]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lardinho @ Dec 13 2009, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

He's a genius. I am talking, of course, about the St. Helens player. He has played for England under 18s, too and not only is he lightning quick with a superb sidestep, he can also kick from the halfway line.

He's only 20 year old and unlike (mostly) all the rugby league players we end up trying to convert. They are either too old to learn the differences in the game, or they are too chosen for positions that need a lifetime of learning. The most successful have played outside centre, full back and wing. John Bently, Jason Robinson, Alan Tait, Alan Bateman. More skilled positions like inside centre, fly half have proven difficult even for the most natural footballers such as Andy Farrell. If we'd have converted him before the age of 25 I think he'd have been a great.

Leslie Vianikolo, too old to convert and make a difference, same with Henry Paul and plenty of others.

Kyle Eastmond is 20, a winger/fullback who can kick as well as the best of them, do we not have any scouts looking at these players? What the hell does Rob Andrew do if he does not go looking for these players? He's done sweet FA since being in charge. Martin Johnson may be **** at selecting, but lets hope his vision is better.

Bring Kyle Eastmond to rugby union, make him a super star. His potential is to be as Dan Carter if he's treated well.[/b]

Or Rugby Union could produce their own players.

 

[Bullitt]

A Wigan fan of all teams really should keep stchum on that issue.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lardinho @ Dec 13 2009, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

He's a genius. I am talking, of course, about the St. Helens player. He has played for England under 18s, too and not only is he lightning quick with a superb sidestep, he can also kick from the halfway line.

He's only 20 year old and unlike (mostly) all the rugby league players we end up trying to convert. They are either too old to learn the differences in the game, or they are too chosen for positions that need a lifetime of learning. The most successful have played outside centre, full back and wing. John Bently, Jason Robinson, Alan Tait, Alan Bateman. More skilled positions like inside centre, fly half have proven difficult even for the most natural footballers such as Andy Farrell. If we'd have converted him before the age of 25 I think he'd have been a great.

Leslie Vianikolo, too old to convert and make a difference, same with Henry Paul and plenty of others.

Kyle Eastmond is 20, a winger/fullback who can kick as well as the best of them, do we not have any scouts looking at these players? What the hell does Rob Andrew do if he does not go looking for these players? He's done sweet FA since being in charge. Martin Johnson may be **** at selecting, but lets hope his vision is better.

Bring Kyle Eastmond to rugby union, make him a super star. His potential is to be as Dan Carter if he's treated well.[/b]

I don't understand how Kyle is so highly rated by some outside the sport. He is NOT a full back and has played a handful of games on the wing. He's a 7. I'm a St Helens season ticket holder, have been for 20 of my 25 years, and I have seen him come through our ranks. I am delighted he very recently signed a new 2 year contract, but I dislike how his wage demands suddenly shot up as Sean Long left. Just because Long has gone doesn't mean Eastmond is automatically going to replace him. I don't think anyone can appreciate just how monumental a task replacing Sean Long is.

Whilst Kyle is the obvious candidate, there's no guarantees on anything at the moment. He is our 7 next season and if he has a great season then I will approve all waxing of his lyrical. However, considering he ended up playing at centre last season when Sean Long was half blind in one eye, suggests to me the club don't yet trust him 100% Who can blame us? At the end of the day he's just a kid with a big mouthed agent.

I hear him being compared to Jason Robinson, which I understand because Kyle is all about blistering pace. This lad has ball handling skills as well though. If he ever went to union, which his parasitical agent wasn't ruling out at one point, I have no doubt he'd be a success. However, he's just signed a new 2 year deal and if he's a success in 2010 we'll look to tie him down to a longer one.

He's nowhere near the finished article yet though. Quite why people can't see that is beyond me. But you can keep your greasy mitts off - for now.

 

[gingergenius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (St Helens RLFC @ Dec 14 2009, 10:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lardinho @ Dec 13 2009, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He's a genius. I am talking, of course, about the St. Helens player. He has played for England under 18s, too and not only is he lightning quick with a superb sidestep, he can also kick from the halfway line.

He's only 20 year old and unlike (mostly) all the rugby league players we end up trying to convert. They are either too old to learn the differences in the game, or they are too chosen for positions that need a lifetime of learning. The most successful have played outside centre, full back and wing. John Bently, Jason Robinson, Alan Tait, Alan Bateman. More skilled positions like inside centre, fly half have proven difficult even for the most natural footballers such as Andy Farrell. If we'd have converted him before the age of 25 I think he'd have been a great.

Leslie Vianikolo, too old to convert and make a difference, same with Henry Paul and plenty of others.

Kyle Eastmond is 20, a winger/fullback who can kick as well as the best of them, do we not have any scouts looking at these players? What the hell does Rob Andrew do if he does not go looking for these players? He's done sweet FA since being in charge. Martin Johnson may be **** at selecting, but lets hope his vision is better.

Bring Kyle Eastmond to rugby union, make him a super star. His potential is to be as Dan Carter if he's treated well.[/b]

I don't understand how Kyle is so highly rated by some outside the sport. He is NOT a full back and has played a handful of games on the wing. He's a 7. I'm a St Helens season ticket holder, have been for 20 of my 25 years, and I have seen him come through our ranks. I am delighted he very recently signed a new 2 year contract, but I dislike how his wage demands suddenly shot up as Sean Long left. Just because Long has gone doesn't mean Eastmond is automatically going to replace him. I don't think anyone can appreciate just how monumental a task replacing Sean Long is.

Whilst Kyle is the obvious candidate, there's no guarantees on anything at the moment. He is our 7 next season and if he has a great season then I will approve all waxing of his lyrical. However, considering he ended up playing at centre last season when Sean Long was half blind in one eye, suggests to me the club don't yet trust him 100% Who can blame us? At the end of the day he's just a kid with a big mouthed agent.

I hear him being compared to Jason Robinson, which I understand because Kyle is all about blistering pace. This lad has ball handling skills as well though. If he ever went to union, which his parasitical agent wasn't ruling out at one point, I have no doubt he'd be a success. However, he's just signed a new 2 year deal and if he's a success in 2010 we'll look to tie him down to a longer one.

He's nowhere near the finished article yet though. Quite why people can't see that is beyond me. But you can keep your greasy mitts off - for now.
[/b][/quote]

I think this is why the union world want him now. The problem with most league converts is that they come too late on in their careers to learn the game properly; Myler and Ashton on the other hand have come nice and early and therefore know the ins and outs of union.

Everyone remembers Jason Robinson, he was the most exciting player England had since Guscott. A Union fan sees Eastmond, who is short, stocky, mixed race, posessing fantastic accelaration of the mark and a great step... and undoubtedly the two are compared. Because he's young and so similar to Robinson, they want to get him into Union before it's too late. Which is understandable.

Personally I'd say his best option would be to continue playing League - I said earlier his whole array of talents would be stifled in Union.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

He'd be as well proving himself in league before anything else.

 

[ridgerunnersp]

I looked on youtube, could only find one crappy video of him. If anyone wanted to post links to some more that'd be fresh.

 

[Olyy]

I would've thought there'd be more of him on there,
He was SH (#7) in this match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmTk-Z2aa6o so you can see him in action at points on there, though the best would be to try and find a full saints match he played in, pity the season doesnt start for a few months

 

[St Helens RLFC]

I can't find the video of him scoring against Wigan 2 years ago, it was an electric try, absolutely unbelievable.

 

[Woldog]

Yeah Timana Tahu would be a fantastic convert for Union too.......... oh wait.

 

[Bullitt]

Tana Umaga (who played both anyway) and Stepehn Myler aside, the only decent League to union converts are wingers or fullbacks. look at all the centres and stand-offs who've come in with all the hype and failed to a spectacular level (especially the pan-faced £200,000 per-year laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank Saracen).

Eastmond may have the pace and acceleration, but he's not a winger not a fullback. He's also get destroyed if he was ever introduced to a flanker, a number 8 or a prop at ruck time.

He's a league player, let him thrive in the arena he's best designed for.

 

[Fa'atau82]

Exactly. He's far better suited to League. I don't get these experiments with RL players in Union. Oh he's big, or he's pacey he'll really make an impact. With the exception of Vainikolo's union debut at Leeds (5 tries) you are quickly found out within a few games at the highest level.

Sure, put him in Union. It's very unlikely it will work as it does in your mind with your rose-tinted spectacles.. In my mind the only real decent converts of recent years are Robinson and maybe Myler who is still coming on.

Union is a far more complex game of strategy than RL IMHO. RL is far more direct, and in Union he'd just be hanging around like a spare one and not using his skillset as much as RL. It'd be nice to see a REAL electric runner in Union again a la Robinson or Caucau, but i don't think it's Kyle. Not saying he can't.. but why fix something that isn't broken?

 

[Nickdnz]

As Mite mentiones, Umaga was a success. There have been several successful players such as Umaga, Lote T (especially when he was younger), Sailor (as a player he did pretty well, but like many players he had other issues, so moved back to league), Robinson, Mark Ellis, Tuigamala etc, however I agree that these people are an exception to the rule. If players have played league most of their lives, done really well in it, there is no need or guarentee that they'll be good in Union. It is a big career risk with often disapointing results and little pay-off.