Jon Wilkin stunned by John Asiata tackle

Leigh Leopards star John Asiata is rubbing shoulders with the likes of Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves and of course St Helens stars as one of the best in the league.

In many ways he is the ideal loose-forward for the modern game. He has the skill set of a ball playing 13 that was the fashion at the start of the century but the physicality of the 13 used in recent times.

However, despite what has been a sensational season from the loose-forward, he has been involved in a lot of controversy in recent times due to his tackle technique after being at fault for injuries to Alex Walmsley, Agnatius Paasi, Morgan Knowles and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook in the Challenge Cup semi-final.

However, the likes of Johnathon Davies have dismissed all of this as a lot of hot air and a fuss over nothing.

The technique at present is legal and another of his low tackles left Jon Wilkin stunned on Sky Sports for the right reasons.

Asiata chopped down Brad Schneider as he threatened to break with a fired low tackle and Jon Wilkin did not slam the tackle but praised it saying: “Wow! That is some tackle. That is a proper tackle.”

Recently Derek Beaumont spoke about Asiata’s tackle technique.

“The best human being I’ve met in the game is just an absolute quality human being,” he said on the Last Tackle.

“He’s so selfless, so charitable, thinks about others. He’s a great leader with his actions. His actions are always louder than his words, but when he speaks people take notice and he speaks well. He puts his body on the line and he’s so committed.

“He goes out in the community, he coaches one of the local amateur teams and he’s taking the cup this afternoon to Darien House in Chorley, that a lot of rugby people help out and get involved in. I spoke to John for about an hour to convince him to sign for us during the whole COVID situation.

“My views on it is the same my charity stuff is and it was an hour’s talk of a just a real connection and we’ve just got this special connection and he’s a fantastic man who I’ll always be in debt to along with the rest of the players.”

He did admit he doesn’t like Asiata’s tackle technique but explained it only gets dangerous when he is tired: “We don’t like that tackle technique because it puts John at risk as well. He’ll get looked at at the end of the year but I think the reasons he should be talked about are the ones you just talked about.

“So he’s a massive, massive part in what we do with the ball and huge in defence. That was just desperation. People run at him, they target him, tire him out. They got our middles off before half-time.

“The only teams who have done it this year to us since, they’ve worked hard on it. And when he gets tired he’ll do desperate actions, and if he tries a conventional tackle he’ll just put his head there and that’s what he did and if he tries a conventional tackle he’ll pass his scores and we don’t know to handle it.”