Watts into the 19, no Carlisle

Saints worryingly close to full strength...

McDonnell, Hall, D. Hodgson, Clinton, Withers, Webster, Watts, Wheeldon, Taylor, Lovegrove, J. Hodgson, Paea, Horne, Murrell, Mika, Netherton, Cox, Welham, Latus.

Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Hohaia, Lomax, Perry, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Puletua, Wilkin, Flannery, Laffranchi, Clough, Wheeler, Dixon, Makinson, Foster.

Could be a long afternoon.

You'd think we'll probably adopt a defensive game plan, which I think would be a mistake.

Could be a game for Netherton's defensive qualities.

Damn!!!!

Forgot to take Welham out of my sldreamteam team. Think he could achieve a superleague most missed tackles record this week

When Justin announced his 19 you could quite easily select the team from it, but not with Sandercock, he has more permutations than a Lucky-15!

I reckon Netherton and Latus will miss out but my two would be Netherton and Murrell.

I would select Latus on the wing thus bringing an end to the switch around between Hall and Lovegrove.

I notice Gaskell is missing for Saints and Roby is doubtful (but I expect him to play irrespective of Simmon's 100% fit pledge).

surely no Carlile means Murrell and Hall will be in the halves and not Withers.

[size=150AAARRRGGHHHH!!!![/size

unless murrells playing hooker we can live in hope

what you lot worried about?You always beat us at your place

i think that run may just come to an end without green dobson galea

Was sure Carlisle would be in. Guessing Nev & Watts on the bench with maybe Cox getting a rest?

whose that ur mate smith and hudge saying god here we go again lol

no nev please.

....and no Ian Smith playing for you these days either.

Dream on pal.

Stopping Roby is the number one priority and to me that means keeping Withers at 9 for his excellent defensive qualities and then have Hodgson off the bench.

The second priority is getting on top in the forwards which to me means probably keeping Mika in the second-row though I think he'd do a great job @ 6.

The third priority is having a good kicking game which means pairing Hall with Murrell because he's one of the best kickers we have otherwise Saints will find it easy to target Hall on 5th tackle plays if he doesn't have a foil who can kick.

Other pluses to having Murrell defending next to a second-rower rower means no easy targets for Saints to run at (with Lovegrove defending next to a second-rower on the other side). Also if Murrell goes to 7 then you can put Netherton in the middle to help control the ruck and do most of the defensive work in the middle so Paea and Clinton can be kept fresher for their go-forward. Watts would be another option @ 13 but I think he'd concede penalties having not played for a while.

Of course everyone knows Murrell lacks pace but this is fairly insignificant compared to the rest of the things needed to win the game.

If we control the ruck and get a fair share of the ball then I think Saints pack will struggle.

If Roby starts finding gaps and getting away from dummy-half then we'll get beat.

I've just seen the 19-man squads and I have to say; If we don't beat them by 18+, It's because we let them win.

Netherton played today for the under 20s.

Wouldnt be surprised to see J Hodgson play some part in halves tomorrow.

The east stand erupts with the naming of Murrell in at 6.

It will be intersesting to see who Royce lines up with.

The half backs could give a surprise with Wheeler, but my money would be on Lance playing.
Royce will probably play TP and Perry as both need the matches, but last week he left out LMS as he was the fittest of the 5 props.
Our second rowers are probably the strongest part of our pack, running some good lines with the exception of flannery.

Roby has been decent, had some nice touches and really controls our defensive line.

Also Wellens at FB again, which should sure up some of the defensive weaknesses we had against Salford. That first try was a miss by Lance for mine.

Personally I'd play all 5 props this week as it's a combo we have not tried and it maybe a useful test to see how we would run with 5 big guys and one less second rower.

Anyone want to join the sweep stake on how many seconds our back on the bench will play. The good betting is zero.

Suns out over in East Hull, blazing through my windows giving the illusion of being in a nuke town mid-blast. It's still cold out, though.

Is kick-off at 3pm?

That seams to be the official kickoff time, did not realised FC where playing at home as well today. Does that make for a rough night in Hull tonight????

Doubt it, we'll get pasted and then just all go home to sulk.

Your little picture is terrifying.