I agree. The dropped ball looked more naturally Marshall's ball, but I can see the argument that "if in any doubt, it's the full-back's". It's not the first time something like that has happened this season, and it really shouldn't. Lets hope they've sorted it out in training.

I am far from convinced that Hardaker would make a better winger than Marshy. Sarge is leaving the club anyway, I don't see why we need to move people around to accommodate him as if he were Latrell Mitchell.


I notice everyone has Sammut at 7. Do we really think Lam will start with him there?

Id be amazed if he starts with Sammut in fact it wouldn't surprise me if its Escare and Sammut who miss the cut. Personally I would start with Sammut but I don't think Lam will start with TL, Powell and Sammutt on the field.

The pack looks really lightweight without SOL , Greenwood and Flower so we will need further improvement to beat HKR on Friday.

Think Sammut will be on the bench as per last week.

We were without SOL, Greenwood and Flower for 78 minutes last week as well and the pack went OK. I do rate Rovers’ pack better than Salford though.

I agree re HKR pack hence why we will need to improve on last week.
HKR need to win, have a decent coach and some good players so Friday will be much tougher than last week when we played a Salford team also missing a few regulars

It’s going to be a bit like late seasons in premier league football this year in that games for the top teams like Saints, Wire and Hull against the bottom teams will become far more difficult because of the relegation picture. Everyone of Leeds, London, HKR and Huddersfield know they’re in big trouble and they’ll be in survival mode, which will make what would normally seem like simple fixtures for teams much harder. This game would be tough for us anyway as we’re not currently in that top team bracket but it’s even harder now.

It’s great for the league to be truthful.

He's played there a fair bit previously in his career (as well as centre). Sarginson looked really good at FB when he's played there this season, and Hardaker has done little to show he should automatically get the spot this season. A change of positions might just give him a kick up the backside like giving him the 20 shirt was supposed to.

If you go back to the highlights, you'll see that Williams, Sammut, Powell and Leuluai are all on at the same time for Hardaker and Marshall's tries. I'm not saying it's a long term solution but we played our best rugby during that period.

At that time wasn’t it Powell in at Loose? Leuluai was at hooker with Sammut & Williams in the halves. It worked quite well too!

You could be right there actually looking at the highlights, cheers

I don’t think Sarg should come back in for either Hankinson or Hardaker. Both are playing well in their best position and Hank’s goal kicking is invaluable.

I like Sarginson, particularly his work rate but just because he had two good games at full back we are discussing displacing one of the best full backs in the league.

If he comes back in its on the wing for Marshall/Burgess.

So how would you cover the loss of SOL and Greenwood on top of Flower, TT and Hamlin? For me it’s Hankinson to cover second row (tough on him) and Sarge returns to centre.

Hank’s defence is superb and he certainly wouldn’t let anybody down in that department. I’ve suggested this a few times because of the number of times play breaks down when Isa is involved. He works his plums off but Isa bombs chance after chance on that edge. I’d definitely be happy to try a right edge shift of Williams, Sammut, Hankinson, Sarginson and Marshy. If Hardaker launches himself in at the right times it could be very fruitful.

Leave Hankinson at centre. Sarg makes the bench at best but is a waste of a spot really if he just there to cover injuries.

The backs are not the problem at the moment. We are going to be horribly light weight up front again without pushing Powell into 13 but it might have to happen.

Who would have thought that we stick 52 points up against HKR watched the matches previously against the Broncos and Hull thought it would have been much closer than the score that it was.

Clubb went off after 8 mins Naverette had an awesome game and played a lot of minutes helped by his 10 mins in the sin bin .Smithies gets better and better each game Farrell had a stormer in fact the whole pack out played HKR pack .

I agree. I think that having Smithies pack down at second row but having him, rather than Powell, filling in for SOL in the middle allowed Powell to continue his fine run of performances. The pack was immense but HKR played into our hands by being so one dimensional.

Tony Smith has apparently turned HKR around but nobody has mentioned our form.....

I thought we would struggle even before Clubb left the field, Navarette had a good game the sin bin was stupid one, the hit looked like payback for something.

An intriguing game in prospect this weekend. Big change in mindset amongst your fans on this board and clearly some better form.

My gut feel is that you've had a pretty kind fixture list, with the upturn in form coinciding with that before what was obviously a commanding performance against HKR but it could by my saints-specs again!

Will be very interesting to see how the form holds up on Friday - I worry that derbies are about who wants it more and Wigan are more desperate for the points, but then I thought that about going to Hull at the weekend TBH.

No argument with anything you’ve said here. I suspect a fairly comfortable Saints win though. Let’s face it, your pack will dominate against ours missing Flower, Clubb, Tautai, Hamlin, & Greenwood and O’Loughlin who all would have been in the 17 at the start of the season.

You will not miss TT. The rest you will - are they confirmed absentees? There is usually a long Wigan injury list in derby week, with SOL always on it then always playing!

Watched the highlights of your game at the weekend and good to see Liam Farrell seemingly hitting some form after a tough time with injuries.

Flower, Clubb, O’Loughlin, all definitely out. You might say we won’t miss Tautai and you’re probably right but he’d still have been in the squad, Hamlin as well but obviously neither are Wigan players anymore. Greenwood out indefinitely with recurring concussion injuries. The emergence of Smithies & Partington has been great to watch but they’re both still very young and raw so it’ll be good to see how they cope with your pack. Farrell is always been a consistent performer for us and yes, great to see him back.
Bigger picture for us is to put in a good performance and not get hammered. We can then move on and consolidate our position in the play offs. I’m sure we’ll be a handful when the times comes.

I agree 100% and don't expect anything other than a defeat on Friday. My point was that everyone believes that Smith has transformed Hull of late whilst we are still fighting relegation according to some people.

Aye, get out of Friday night with a competitive performance, some more experience for a couple of youngsters and no more injuries and I think we can feel like it’s job done. We’re decimated in the front row and we’re playing against a team with an international class front row, so I don’t think we can be unrealistic.

Let’s rattle a few cages and leave us going in to the rest of the season with confidence that we could make a go of the play offs with 4 or 5 forwards back on board.