NickyKiss wrote:
Powell will be an interesting case this year. He definitely picked up under Lam last year regards his running game and that was always peoples stick to beat him with. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we haven’t had a hooker who ran the ball since before Michael Maguire and then suddenly one who didn’t in Powell started to do so under a different style of coach to the last two. If you look at Powell’s stats he’s been fine in regards to setting up try’s from dummy half, racking up more assists than Houghton, Leeming and the great James Roby in each of the last two seasons. He’s a defensive machine also and has a tidy kicking game out of dummy half.
In short he’s underrated for my money and in a more attacking team this year, with what should hopefully be much better go forward, I think he can win a few people round.
I absolutely agree.
I think without doubt he was asked to play a certain way under our previous coach to fit a system.
Lam has somewhat allowed him more freedom and he looks to be much more comfortable with that.
His delivery looks better, his kicking is useful and whilst he doesn’t have that dynamic explosive pace his decision making of when to scoot has added to our options in attack.
His defence and commitment is also very good.
I think it’s also fair to say that his best performances have arguably come for England Knights prior to this year where he also seemed to be allowed more freedom.
It’s also easy to forget that he wasn’t really developed as a 9 throughout his junior career and to a certain extent is still relatively new to the role given his age and experience.
I was far from a fan of his however I think he has been one of the players to really benefit from a change in coach and look forward to seeing him kick on again next year.
