Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 10:29 am  

He's not made the squad anyway and neither has Smithies.

Happy for Wigan.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:20 pm  

Looks like it'll be Tomkins-Williams-Sneyd - may be effective if we're lucky but it's a huge step up for Sneyd, Williams is out of form and Tomkins is unfit.

Most are saying Jack Welsby needs to play but if he does I think it needs to be at fullback. Welsby-Williams-Tomkins may be an option.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:27 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

Looks like it'll be Tomkins-Williams-Sneyd - may be effective if we're lucky but it's a huge step up for Sneyd, Williams is out of form and Tomkins is unfit.

Most are saying Jack Welsby needs to play but if he does I think it needs to be at fullback. Welsby-Williams-Tomkins may be an option.

Welsby Williams Tomkins

Welsby has to play, 1 or 6 I'm not bothered

This is Tomkins last Hurrah, he doesn't have the legs to be in enough of the players from FB for me against the big teams in the big games.
That's why he may play 6

And he certainly eont play 6 games back to back.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:04 pm  

Beat Samoa and we're topping the group so chance to make a few changes and rest Sam for the big games (pretty sure the QF will be an "easy" game if we top the group as well)

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 2:10 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

Beat Samoa and we're topping the group so chance to make a few changes and rest Sam for the big games (pretty sure the QF will be an "easy" game if we top the group as well)

they'll put a cricket score on us

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 2:34 pm  

Jukesays wrote:

Welsby Williams Tomkins

Welsby has to play, 1 or 6 I'm not bothered

This is Tomkins last Hurrah, he doesn't have the legs to be in enough of the players from FB for me against the big teams in the big games.
That's why he may play 6

And he certainly eont play 6 games back to back.

No kicking game or decent goal kicker but I agree it is what SW will probably go with and with Tomkins in the halves.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 3:53 pm  

Stu M wrote:

Good to see you’ve moved on from our 4 in a row Jason. Calling us Stains as well, good effort.

On the Lomax withdrawal I can see it from both sides. He’s played all season with the injury so what’s an extra few games when this is likely to be his last WC and certainly the last one on home soil. Plus with the play off structure you can argue that we don’t even need him for the first few rounds anyway, doesn’t matter if we lost them all in the grand scheme of things.

However we all don’t know just how bad it is. For all we know he could be in real pain every week and his priority will be to prolong his club career as he probably only has 2-3 seasons left at best. It’s a short career as we all know and they don’t earn footballer wages.

Let’s face it too Saints will have a healthy contingent still so it’s not as though they are all resting. Welsby, Knowles, Makinson, Lees and Batchelor will all no doubt be selected. Walmsley too would’ve been. Percival has at least tried to play I believe but the latest scan has shown he’s had a setback and the specialist has said he can’t play.

I only call you stains because some nobody keeps on call us Wigoon,is that ok.
Re-4 in a row as I have always stated from day one that whoever wins the GF is the best team that season your team are the best team this season,also is that ok.
If you take notice I usually reply to anyone calling my team for no reason unless it is a dislike of Wigan,also also is that ok.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 5:33 pm  

Itchy Arsenal wrote:

No kicking game or decent goal kicker but I agree it is what SW will probably go with and with Tomkins in the halves.

SW managed to win trophies with us with no kicking game or goal kicker. I don’t think it bothers him that much.

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 5:35 pm  

Jukesays wrote:

Welsby Williams Tomkins

Welsby has to play, 1 or 6 I'm not bothered

This is Tomkins last Hurrah, he doesn't have the legs to be in enough of the players from FB for me against the big teams in the big games.
That's why he may play 6

And he certainly eont play 6 games back to back.

The real weakness of this team is centre, percival playing would have solved so many issues but unfortunately was not to be.

Hasn't welsby played centre for saints on a number of occasions? Could be our best fit for him as our other options are very scarse

Farnworth - obvious one of the 2 starting centres
Watkins - hasn't he played second row basically all this season and had somewhat of a career revival there?
KPP - not sure i trust him defensively at international level to play the centre position
Bateman - i suppose if we have to? We have plenty of second row options

I keep looking at the team and trying to decide who my 2nd centre would be, only position i am struggling to fill in the 13.and every time i can't see past welsby being the best option we have there.

Dosn't tomkins kick for catalan? Serviceable at least. Sneyd would play in my 13 though with welsby at centre.

Edit - we also have makinson to kick? Plenty of decent enough options

Re: Smith for England : Fri Sep 30, 2022 6:44 pm  

My main worry with the squad isn’t the lack of quality as such but more the lack of real figureheads we’ve lost since the last World Cup. We had S Burgess, Graham, Lockers and Roby for the rest of the players to look up to and that must give you a feeling of security and confidence. Man for man I think we might be as strong just about but that does worry me. Who can step up in to those roles?

On the plus side I see a number of players who I have confidence can make a name for themselves. Guys like Welsby, Farnworth, Young, Oledzki. Pearce-Paul, Batchelor and Knowles haven’t had a big series to establish themselves yet and I think they can all really take that step up and thrive.