I'd be tempted with swift. I spoke about it briefly on the ooc thread that I thought he'd make a good 1 by being more involved, and since have found out he spent time at Whitehaven at 1 and was fantastic by all accounts, so if we want to be bold and not go wellens, he'd be my choice....

Gutting news about lomax though... Just rounds off a dire week really...

Swift seems to be injuty prone at the moment so i doubt we could bank on him :-/

Terrible news for the guy, but I see no point in trying someone else new at Fullback.

If swift is fit he should play wing, same for Makinson.

It's not like they are going to be trying to push Lomax out of position when he returns.

Injuries to Lomax was my main reason for supporting keeping Wellens another year at the start of this year. If there was a young fella busting to get into the team at full back then fine. But for me Wellens is the obvious choice.

Also frees up a slot on the bench for another forward or the revolutionary idea of someone to spell Roby.

I'd hardly call him injury prone. He has an injury that he has not quite recovered from yet. That's not what injury prone means.

As much as I am desperate for us to rotate Roby, who are the options? 1. Wellens 6. Wheeler 7. Walsh 9. Roby 14. Hohaia would be the only way to do it as far as I can see, but if wellens retains the full back position, brown won't split the hohaia and Walsh partnership. Wheeler has never played hooker, and did a fantastic job of playing himself out of the club last week according to all reports I've read, and we don't have a rated youngster bustling through the youth ranks at hooker either.

IF (and it's a big if) hohaia is taking another shot at the NRL and IF were struggling to land a quality replacement is it not worth looking at a long term option of 6. Lomax 7. Walsh? Whilst he's out we'd be looking for his replacement at fullback ...

I know most people will say lomax should stay as 3rd pivot, but it's entirely possible to do that, by using the more traditional set up of using 13 as a pivot as well. Fortunately we have Wilkin/ charnock who sound competent at doing so/ willing to do so. Then the fullback is free to play a more wellens style role of popping up to be on the end of the last pass time and time again...

I agree, with a proper 7 like Walsh, the no.6 can play more of a free role.

I'd much rather:

1. New signing 6. Lomax 7. Walsh

than:

1. Lomax 6. Hohaia 7.Walsh

If no stand off is available then a new full back would be the next best thing I reckon.

I'm not fixed on Lomax being a 6 or a 1. However, saying we need to look long term for another 1 or 6, is different to saying throw anyone we currently have at fullback.

Fact 1: If Wellens is fit he is going to play, this can't even be a guess now, we are over halfway through the season. Given that fact. Having him on the bench weakens the team as he does not provide that leadership from there for 60 minutes of the game.
He is not a 6 so playing him there would be bad news.
He is not a forward and regularly posts lets be fair not great figures from that role.

However he can still do a decent job of FB.

Fact 2: Makinson and Swift are our best and most potent wingers. Why make them play elsewhere and put in a less effective winger?

The extra spot freed up from Wellens not playing pack or bench, will allow us to play either another forward. Savellio
Or a replacement for Roby - Is Channock not still with us, could he not do 10 mins each half?

As for Wheeler, that boat has sailed for me. I'm not going to keep faith based on moments of guile and a 40 minute display at Wigan nearly half a decade ago.

Good luck to the lad, but for me we need stability at 7 and 6. So that is Lance and Walsh until one gets injured.

Either way another forward/hooker on the bench will give Roby some help by rest or by soaking up some more tackling.

Doesn't matter at all. The team with or without Lomax isn't good enough to win anything anyway.

Am I the only one who thinks Lomax hasn't really kicked on from his youthful promise phase? He's looked very tired this season.

Forget playing Wellens there, what would that achieve? Blood someone new, there must be a young 1,4,5 or 6 that could be brought in?

We do far too much looking to next season already. If we write off this one by experimentation for a new fullback or 6 for next year , watch the season ticket renewals fall off a cliff.

It's 2 - 3 months before the renewals go out. This part of the season will be in people's heads when it comes time to buy or not.

Also buy in who? Are we not at cap?

I feel for Jonny, any injury is bad but one that ends a players season is terrible.
To us supporters RL is our passion and we love it but to the players that put their bodys on the line each week its their living.

I hope Jonny makes a full and speedy recovery as soon as he can.

I know bringing Ade back isnt an option but letting him go on a season long loan to HKR seems a massive blunder. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Had Cockayne not got injured, Id have said Greg Eden would be a ready made replacement for the rest of the year, but they wont let him go now.

We have shafted ourselves trying to do the right thing and give gardner regular first team rugby.

We did the same letting Clough go just as our prop injury list picked up.

Hope it's on the lessons learned for next year.

There is a reason for a squad, you never know who will get injured and when or for how long.

I'm personally glad Gardner has gone because he was past it and we needed to bring on Makinson (who has been great for us bar the last couple of games). However, getting rid of Clough, especially knowing our inability to keep people fit, was one of the most stupid decisions made by our coaching staff.

As for Lomax, I'm gutted for him. We will miss him in attack especially as he had formed a good working relationship with Walsh and was looking so much the better for being able to link in with a proper 7. One by one we have been losing our attacking options this season.

One question I did have was is this injured knee the same knee he had just recently injured? Was he returned too soon? Rhetorical question I guess but with our record I'm not confident about our ability to return a player fit to the pitch.

Ian Henderson returned to the Dragons after months out with a broken bone. He tore us a new one. Our previously injured players return to our team and look knackered.

I think lomax is vital to saints as he links up so well as the extra halfback we lack and also is very dangerous outwide. He links up very well with Walsh.

IMO it's a massive blow to us and especially our attack.

Agreed, if wellens has to play, it has to be for the majority of the game. And agreed, makinson and swift are currently our 2 strongest wingers. But I'm not suggesting we we just stick anyone in there - I'd just like us to see how well swift takes to the role. He doesn't even need to play there every week, just enough to gauge if it would be an option. He's played the role before at a lower level, and I think he'd have great potential to replicate it in superleague. If it turns into a disaster, then we put him back on the wing, put wellens to fullback and vow never for it to happen again. If he takes to it like a duck to water, we've opened up another option for ourselves next year, by making 1. Swift 6. Lomax 7. Walsh an option, should the quality of 6 not be suitable, meaning we can focus our cap space in other areas (like a quality interchange hooker!)

Charnock is still with us, but seems to be being groomed to take Wilkins role in a couple of years from the reports I've read. Plus brown has "judged him not ready"

How would Gardner help our full back situation now? We have Dawson to cover either Swift or Makinson if they play at 1.

Unless I'm missing something, Swift is presently injured so Dawson and Gardner wings, Makinson to full back.

That said, I'd prefer Ade to Dawson as cover anyway.

I think Swift is very close to a return. Keeping 2 spare wingers would have been a bit daft as one would hardly ever be used.

Besides, I can't see them moving Makinson from the wing with the way he has been finishing tries this season.

Short term I would have Wellens at full back, we need to get that Percival and Swift partnership going.
When that happens we could try Dawson at Full Back for a couple of games to see how he goes defensively, we know he should be good on kick returns.
We,ve got plenty of options but its important we don,t rearrange most of the backline to cater for one position.

Bad news for Lomax, gutted for him and I hope he comes back next season stronger.

I don't think we can afford to experiment with this position now, we've got some big games coming up and we need to pick up some points in our next three games from somewhere.

As Wellens appears to be making the 17 in some form it would make sense to put him back there for the short term until we get some players back from injury and have another forward on the bench.

Yeah, I'd go with that. Wello does sometimes stunt our attack out wide, but at least he is safe and we'll have the benefit of his leadership for 80 minutes each week. I'd be using Wello's space on the bench/in the forwards to make sure Savelio gets a game every week, as he is one of the few players we have who can get metres when the going is tough.

What about loaning out LMS and bringing in a specialist attacking full back????

Seems to work for Salford.

I'd happily piggy back LMS to whichever club would have him.

Gutted for a player that actually tries 100 percent. However not being coached by Brown for another 4 months might actually do him the world of good in the long term. Instead of the skittles advert where everything he touches turns into them very tasty toffees. Everything Brown touches turns into that awful stench that we all know as sh*te.