And a stronger Leigh team than what they have this year. I'm not saying we should play the reserves, but we should still win this by over 30 even if we give one or two less experienced lads a game.

Mentioned this on the VT when they were getting excited at putting 50 on us. Our side that day was:

Tierney (3rd choice)
Davies (5th choice)
Burgess (winger)
Gildart (went off injured)
Marshall (4th choice)
Williams
Leuluai
Frank
Micky
Sutton
Isa (was behind Joel, Faz and Bateman then)
Wells (5th choice SR?)
Joel

Navarette
Tautai
Liam Forsyth (Bruce was a better centre)
Ganson (3rd choice hooker)

We have sent better sides for the friendly.

We were stronger at the start of the season but still missing several names and beat them 25-0.

I agree and to be honest I expect Leigh to be well beaten in most of their games this year. They were hamstrung from the start, not getting all the SL money, only being told late on they were in SL. They’re on an ultra back foot before they even start and in my mind they’ll do well to pick up 2 wins, luckily they haven’t gone and splashed the cash. I’d imagine they’ve had the foresight to know that unless something extraordinary happens they’ll be Championship again in 2022. The teamsNOT selected for promotion are rather ironically better off and in a far better position to mount a relegation survival bid when one is promoted.

yeah, still beat them on aggregate for the season

At the risk of sounding boring again



Play our Best team and Win - End of
We can worry about bringing players in further down the line when the teams is more settled, we have wins on the board and more experienced players need a week off.

DO NOT underestimate ANY Team

1st game of the season is NOT the time to be taking nay chances

The number of games where our first 17 is available will be limited as they always are.
Play them v Leigh and try to get the two points as best we can.
Leigh will give it everything and we need to be aware of that and prepared to deal with it. The best 17 is one way to prepare,

I would not be surprised to see Leigh go out all guns blazing for this first one. We have come a cropper before. We really need to see our strongest combinations before we start to make changes. With the distortion of loop fixtures and Saints getting to play away games at home we will need all the wins that we can get.