Just look at the pack even before they get injuries:
Flower - Had a good career with us but wasn't always making the 17 last year. Good signing for them nonetheless. Hood - Championship journeyman, out of his depth Ioane - Again just a bog standard Championship player. Did nothing of note for London when they were in SL then they got rid. Hellewell - As above. Two of their best forwards are from the team that got London relegated. Thompson - Has plenty SL experience but he never really did anything of note. Made the natural move to the Championship after opportunities dried up in SL. Like Flower he's a good guy to have in the side but not as one of your best players. Bell - Unknown quantity (or to me he is anyway) as he's still very new to first team rugby.
Flower walks into those teams. Thompson maybe pinches a bench spot. The rest of that Leigh pack would be sat in the stands even at Wakey or KR unless they had injuries. I feel bad for Leigh because they had inadequate time to prepare for SL. I don't want them to do badly but I'm struggling to see how they're on a par with Wakey or KR. I think people are getting mistakenly thinking we're up against the same Leigh that last got relegated from SL. That side had Hock, Higham, Patterson, Stewart, Hansen and Tickle in the pack and still only managed 5 wins. I'm not saying this time they will finish on 0 points but it's a possibility IMO.
As a Leigh fan, I can't really argue with that, we've signed Nathan Peats today, but it's still a side (apart from 3 players) that were signed to play for us in the championship. I think our backs are of a slightly better standard than our pack, but only just.
Just one of those things really. They couldn't have known Field, Gildart and Manfredi would all get injured at the same time. Plus we had no cap space anyway until G.Burgess left very recently. We do have wingers emerging in Hanley and Halsall, it's just that the jury is definitely out over whether they are ready.
Only Manfredi is a winger, Gildart and Field are not. Hanley and Halsall are not wingers either. It is not one of those things it is pp planning.
Wire_91 wrote:its your first final in about 8 years and now you ravin and rantin about it F**k off, and ill be going old trafford tomoz cheering on the saints and ill be writing on this forum givin you loads of shi* when your drying you eyes and the wire fan will be here handing out the tissues in the thousands, thats if you do take that many fans cause now it looks like its your fans who have jumped on the band wagon now your in a final, this time last year there was only 1000 people in the jjb and now its fillin up cause youve won the league hahaha proper true supporters you are
Next to impossible to say at the minute. I noticed Field on the training pitch working with the ball, so I’m hoping he may be ok and that would solve one headache.
If I guess he’s fit and Hastings plays but nobody else makes it from the doubtful list I’d go-
Field Hanley Hardaker Isa Bibby Hastings Leuluai Singleton Powell Bullock Bateman Farrell Partington
Subs Havard Clark Smithies Smith
If Field doesn’t play then Hardaker fullback, Bateman centre, Smithies starting and Shorrocks on to the bench.
Think you’ve nailed this team mate, although expect Clubb and Byrne to be above Clark is the pegging order despite a good showing against Salford.
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
The_Enforcer wrote:
Most idiotic post ever goes to Grimmy..... The way to restart should be an arm wrestle between a designated player from each side.
Remember about 3/4 weeks ago and certain posters talking about leaving half the team out as we should beat Leigh easy etc. ? It was a ridiculous statement then, and anyone who takes any team lightly deserves what they get Well need to be as good as we can be Friday, as we will most weeks.
I'd have to look back but pretty sure I suggested giving Kilner and one of the backs a go on the basis that I expected them to be needed later in the season so would rather them get experience against Leigh than being thrown in the deep end when injuries force it. Otherwise you can end up with a situation like we had with Jack Murphy in the 2012 SL semi final against Leeds. Obviously at the time I only thought we would be missing Marshall. Now I'd go as full strength as we are able. IMO we would have won the Grand Finals in 2011 and 2012 if we hadn't fielded our best available team every week.
Hastings could do with another week to sharpen up Lam has said but he hasn’t ruled him out. Maybe he’d be an option for the bench to keep him up our sleeve if we need to chase the game.
I’d definitely start Field at fullback. We need some centres and we need some pace at fullback, so it covers both bases by moving Hardaker back to his centre spot.
Only Manfredi is a winger, Gildart and Field are not. Hanley and Halsall are not wingers either. It is not one of those things it is pp planning.
That's very selective to say the least & smacks of short term thinking.
We have four wing options at the club in Marshall, Manfredi, Bibby and Hanley. After that you can slot French/Field/Zak in there. That's six players to cover two spots in the side.
Any club would struggle with 4 of those 6 options not being available + other backline injuries too.
Let's not forget that this time last year we ran with Hank and Escare in the squad and the club got chastised for having too much quantity Vs quality. Neither of them really played and it didn't help anyone. In a month or so we'll be back in that situation and leaving players out.
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
The_Enforcer wrote:
Most idiotic post ever goes to Grimmy..... The way to restart should be an arm wrestle between a designated player from each side.
Only Manfredi is a winger, Gildart and Field are not. Hanley and Halsall are not wingers either. It is not one of those things it is pp planning.
Hanley and Halsall are both wing options. That's no different to any other year when we have used Goulding, Tierney, Gelling, Murphy, Thornley etc on the wings. The others aren't wingers but they hurt our wing options when they are out as they allow us to move French or Hardaker there (or Field if he can deputise there).
We have a salary cap to work to, any team in the league would be struggling with this amount of first choice players potentially unavailable. If we went for a winger then we presumably would have needed to free up cap space earlier than when G.Burgess went. That probably means one of French/Hastings/Leuluai not staying on. So we lose a quality starter and gain the calibre of winger who would be happy to sign on knowing he needs a starter and Bibby both to get injured before he even gets a game. Probably not someone much better than Hanley or Halsall. They can be criticised for not recalling Hankinson but that's about it IMO. They had no way of knowing all these backs would be out.
Hastings could do with another week to sharpen up Lam has said but he hasn’t ruled him out. Maybe he’d be an option for the bench to keep him up our sleeve if we need to chase the game.
I’d definitely start Field at fullback. We need some centres and we need some pace at fullback, so it covers both bases by moving Hardaker back to his centre spot.
I agree but Zak has confirmed that he'll be at #1. Ultimately means we'll have two backrowers in the centre positions.