Assuming no injuries from Fri, and with Escare, Woods and Hamlin all proving themselves fit yesterday, what do people think the team will be for the crunch match s Cas.
Will Flower be fit? Will Sarge move back to centre?

teams please ....

Tomkins
Marshall/Davies
Sarginson
Gildart
Burgess
Williams
Escare
Flower
Leuluai
Clubb
Bateman
Farrell
O'Loughlin

Sutton
Tautai
Tomkins
Isa

Tomkins
Davies Sarg Gildart Burgess
Williams Lockers
Flower Tommy Naverrette
Faz Isa
Bateman
————————
Ganson J Tomkins Clubb Sutton

Tomkins
Davies / Marshall
Bateman
Gildart
Burgess
Williams
Powell (if not banned)
Flower
Leuluai
Clubb
Isa
Farrell
O’Loughlin

Tomkins
Sutton
Tautai / Navarette
Escare

Tomkins
Davies, Sarginson, Gildart, Burgess,
Williams, Powell,
Clubb, Leuluai, Flower,
Farrell, Bateman,
O'Loughlin.
Bench - Escare Sutton, Tautai, J Tomkins.

There may be disciplinary with Powell. I do think it will be minimal and he will play.

I reckon after what Cas did to us at the back end of last season he will play his best 17. The following week at Widnes is when perhaps Waney will give others their chance.

Escare must come back in now, surely, after that performance in the reserves.

Give Hamlin another run out

It’s realky tough to come up with a team. I think we need a new option in the halves but a game against Cas may be a little much for Woods just yet.

I think I’d go-

Tomkins
Davies Sarginson Gildart Burgess
Williams O’Loughlin
Clubb Leuluai Flower
Bateman Farrell Isa

Subs
Sutton Tomkins Hamlin Escare

I’d rotate Navarette and Hamlin round to keep getting both some opportunities. We need to get that impact option of Escare back on the bench and I’d go with the steady option of Lockers in the halves.

Why are any of us kissing ourselves to think that SW will make such a major change and take Powell out of 7? It’s not going to happen, surely?

I don't think he will either. I was very impressed with Bateman v Leeds, especially his stint at 13, was a great ball player not just a runner. This convinced me that we could use him as our 13 allowing Lockers to run the right side of the team.

Did he play the whole game as a fb? or did they give him a run in the halves?

He was fullback in the first half and in the halves second, and played really well in both positions, was man of the match by a mile.
Hamlin was disappointing, bar one good run. Byrne, Kibula and Partington were much better than him on the day. I would expect Hamlin to come into contention for the Widnes and Salford games.

I think the only people that have left him out at 7 have left him out of the team altogether, assuming he will be banned?

Good news on Escare. I would like to see a change at 7. I see Powell as an interchange 9. Give Escare a run there or possibly Lockers

I'd go:

FB 20 Escare
RW 22 Marshall
RC 14 Bateman
LC 4 Gildart
LW 5 Burgess
SO 6 Williams
SH 1 S.Tomkins
P 8 Clubb
H 9 Leuluai
P 10 Flower
SR 19 Isa
SR 12 Farrell
LF 13 O’Loughlin

S 7 Powell (or 23 Ganson if he's banned)
S 11 J.Tomkins
S 15 Sutton
S 17 Tautai

I've stuck up for Sarginson previously, but he was a liability against Leeds. Don't know what's going on with him, but 2 errors and 3 penalties in a tight game is very poor, especially considering he wasn't even on for the full 80 and do anything great to offset that. Bateman at centre isn't ideal, but he's a better option than Sarginson right now IMO. Maybe try Sarginson again v Widnes, who pose less of a threat than Castleford.

Escare/S.Tomkins offers more attacking threat than S.Tomkins/Powell IMO. It's not as strong defensively, but we need to throw more at teams IMO. 1 try v Leeds for all the field position we had just isn't good enough.

I didn't really want to put Tautai in there, but don't think Navarette has been any better, last chance saloon before I'd start looking to Wells/Hamlin/Bretherton etc instead.

Escare
Davies/Marshall
Sarge
Gildart
Budgie
Williams
Tomkins
Flower
Powell
Clubb
Bateman
Farrell
Lockers

Tommy
T
Joel
Sutton

I'm trying to not judge from the Leeds game too much as Leeds were equally as bad (arguably worse in some respects) and none of us think that's indicative of how good or bad they will be this season. Throw into the mix the fact that Saints lost yesterday and are coming in for similar criticism from their fans and I think we can probably put any failings down to the post Easter period.

With that in mind I'd be inclined to give the players who showed such heart and will to win another chance to impress on the back of the weekend off and an actual full week's preparation.

That said, Flower has to come back if fit. No brainer. I also agree with the general consensus regarding TT, Powell and Sarge. All 3 need to show more than they have so far for mine as we have options in all three cases should they fail to raise their game.

The only real difficult choice remains Davies or Marshall. Budgie has cemented his place for me on the back of some impressive performances. Both the other two have gone really well without either outshining the other. I'd stick with Marshall for this one. I think his performance on Easter Monday at the DW says he should keep his place for the next home game.

Cant argue with any of that Phuzzy.
I was away at the weekend and didn't really see the Leeds performance due to overdose of alcohol however, I thought we showed real grit and spirit to get a good result.
So far this season we are much improved with potential I think to further improve particularly if we get our timing better on passes and somehow improve our kicking game.
I have criticised Isa in the past but the last few games he has probably been our best forward

Never see the good in limiting Tomkins to one half of the of the field. Much more effective have free roam chiming into the line on both sides of the pitch. Nulling 50% of what he does and making him do far more tackling is beyond me.

Bateman's least effective position he plays has to be centre. Really limits his game.

Where is it set in stone that a halfback must only attack one side of the pitch? I'm sure there are plays where he can come over to the other side, or swap with Escare at a key moment.

I agree regarding Bateman, it's just that Sarginson was that bad against Leeds that I don't think we can risk him against Cas, and we are very strong at second row with Isa/Farrell/O'Loughlin/J.Tomkins all in very good form. Again, opportunities for him to swap with Isa for certain plays/sets if there is a benefit to it.

The formation of the team is pretty much set in stone. This is how and why players form movements and set plays, how they operate. We, like probably all teams play split halves. One half controls the left, the other the right. This is how we play. It's sadly not 1985 anymore when the 6 and 7 play together with the 6 off the 7 to form attacks.

Swapping with Escare? Why not just play Escare as a 7 then? Please no more switcharoos.

I'm sure we can have set moves where the 7 comes over to the left side or whatever though. It's not like he's a goalkeeper. Either practice these moves in training and decide what situations to use them in, or just give Sam some free reign to come over as he sees fit depending on his reading of the game. A couple of years ago I remember us scoring a few tries through a move where Sarginson (RC at the time) would come over to the left, so it's not like Wane doesn't employ that sort of tactic. In fact, he has constantly said "It gives us plenty of options" when asked about FB/Halfback combinations.

I'm not keen on Escare at 7 because it's such an important position that I wouldn't want to be throwing in a player who hasn't really ever played there and barely speaks the same language as his teammates. You want someone there who is going to be directing the attack and ordering the rest into position.

Can't agree with the team making such massive adjustments to the structures just to get the same result from Sam as we do when he plays FB. 6 controls the left, 7 controls the right, FB links in on both sides creating overlaps, you've basically described what Sam does from FB, and in the process makes far few tackles and can't be targeted in the line like he would as a HB.

Escare has played portions of games in the halves, and by all accounts looks legit.

Ah, fair enough. I hadn’t noticed that.
I just put his absence together with the general negativity towards him.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how we line up

Nobody has mentioned it,but doesn't Bateman have as much to fear as Powell from any review? He was involved in the tackle too.