Agreed. With two experienced wingers both playing well I would feel pretty confident putting Vievers in at FB.

It's a real shame about Phelps though he looked truely world class!

Same here, but I'd prefer us to go for the players with "Big game experiance"

I've said that with my choice of Pryce over Vievers but in Howarths case he's probably only going to get 15-20mins even if he is on the bench and then it's not in as important a position as fullback.

Bailey talks about being fit for first team selection in a week or two on the official site today so he may not be quite ready for selection anyway.

shouldnt it be trotter or shank or summat?

Mcguire has said that Bailey will not be named in the sqaud this week and sky has hinted that goulding or ainscough could be in contention due to being on dual registration, which suggests that roberts will at Full back. Would love Ainscough to fill the wing spot but i yhink it will be Pryce

On the subject of Goulding not playing in the reserve fixture surely that doesn't indicate his selection for the Wire game. If he was to be picked for this Saturday i'd guess the coaching staff would have wanted him to get some match practice in not having him sitting round at home twiddling his thumbs.

i deffo think roberts will drop to full back. hope to see ainscough in to replace him

I'd go:

FB 2 Roberts
RW 22 Ainscough (please please recall him MM!)
RC 3 Gleeson
LC 4 Carmont
LW 5 Richards
SO 6 Sam
SH 19 Deacon
P 8 Fielden
H 7 Leuluai
P 21 O'Carroll
SR 11 Hansen
SR 12 Joel
LF 13 O'Loughlin

S 10 Coley
S 16 Bailey
S 17 Paleaaesina
S 23 Mossop

I've put the wingers like that but basically I'd put Richards on whichever side King lines up at, that way they won't get any easy tries through kicks to the corner, the downside is neither will we. Ainscough always seems to cause the opposition loads of problems ball in hand too.

I've brought in O'Carroll because he's in good form and I don't really buy into this 'props can't be short' theory. His lower centre of gravity helps him win the collision IMO, plus we don't want Prescott burning out, he played loads of games last season so a rest won't hurt him.

Can't see any big problems with Deacs and Lulu playing the full 80, in fact this may be preferable to bringing Riddell on as he doesn't really have a big impact and it gives us space for Bailey. I've put him in there but I'm not sure how he went on for the reserves at the weekend. If he didn't play well it would be an option to use Coley as a back rower with Prescott and O'Carroll both in the team. Especially as he's scored in both games this season (well...should have been a penalty try v K.R) and he gets through loads of tackles, plus they have a big pack. I don't prefer this option though as it might make us a bit slow, you definitely couldn't have Coley and Mossop as a second row combo anyway.

Grimmy are you for real?

We score more tries with Riddell at 9 than Tommy. Bailey has only played 40 minutes reserve Rugby, why should he walk straight back in the team?
Coley has only played back row for Wigan twice, both times we had 50 points + against us.

I thought Riddell was injured? Also I can't remember Riddell doing anything special to create tries, if you can remember such instances and I'll watch them on the SL site highlights. If you're saying he doesn't create tries but does create the field position that leads to tries then you might have a point, maybe I'm not noticing his good work.

I specifically mentioned that Bailey would go in depending on what form he was in for the reserves, but I was thinking of him because he had a good season last year, his defence would come in handy against that big strong pack and it wouldn't mean throwing in a debutant in one of the toughest games of the year. Coley at SR was just an afterthought, it probably wouldn't work out and I said as much in the post. I just considered it because he's a very good defender, has been scoring recently, because it would allow us to field (IMO) our best 17 available players and I couldn't remember him getting a go at SR before but knew he'd played there.

That's easy to say in hindsight!

mcguire has already said that bailey wont play this week

leave tommy and sam in the halves , and put deacon at 9.

spell him with tommy, and stick gleeson at 6, with joel going centre.

and play roberts at 1 and bring in ainscough.

Fair does, not the easiest game to come back to granted. If we're going to predict the line up rather than say who we'd play I think it will be the same as I put but with Goulding on the wing instead of Ainscough, Howarth or the bench instead of Bailey and Prescott at prop instead of O'Carroll

Id put Richards at FB and Ainscough on the Rright so Amos can cover KIng

I'd have Pat covering King - Simply because they are of similar height.

Or, let Pat, our tallest back cover King?

Well said

but he plays on the opposite wing

They can swap wings, I'm pretty sure it doesn't make a massive difference to a winger which side he's catching the ball from.

Are you sure it doesnt?....think youll find it does

It will make a difference, but not a massive one. It's not like putting a prop at full back or anything. Surely he'll be fine if he trains on the other wing all week.

Well if Phelps and Bailey are definanetly not playing and Riddells a doubt, and with Maguire already saying Roberts will play Fullback, i would go with:

Roberts
Goulding
Gleeson
Carmont
Richards
Sam
Deacon
Fielden
Leuluai
Coley
Hansen
Joel
O'Loughlin

Feka
Mossop
Pryce
O'Carroll, i agree with Grimmy in that Prescott needs a rest he seems to be stepping off the gas abit and maybe a spell in the reserves will do him the world of good, also O'Caroll deserves his chance.

When I was under the delusion that Ian Millward was an RL genius, who had somehow only got noticed when he arrived at St. Helens, I actually started to believe his oft-proclaimed view that it didn't really matter where a player played so long as the overall tactics were right: good players could play anywhere, and it wouldn't make any difference.

Now of course, I know that Millward was closer to being a lunatic than a genius, and that he got noticed at St Helens because an already very well-oiled team, which also happened to contain three or four of the best players in Britain in pivotal positions, was able to get results without needing much coaching input.

For this reason, I'm less inclined to accept your view on this. I should hastily add that I know you're not proposing anything as radical as Millward used to, but I don't think playing on the left is the same as playing on the right. Players play on one side or the other for a reason - it may be biological, it may be a matter of experience and or confidence, I don't know. But I think that, for a game as important as this (in terms of the big test we expect it to give us), it would surely better to have as few people out of position as possible - then there are no issues to cloud any intel we can take from the end result.

Not yet IMO. Just as whoever gets in due to Phelps' injury deserves a prolonged spell in the team it's unfair to drop Prescott after 2 (victorious) games.