Ward/Burrow at halfback for me - Webb at fullback or not at all. Webb's strength is chiming into the line and throwing the odd good pass. I don't think he's ever been convincing as a halfback.

The rested forwards have to play against Cats I would have thought, or else they'd not have played for 3 weeks before the Final.

My preferred approach would be to pick a full strength side and really go for the win in France, as to me that is by far the best way to prepare for a big game, especially with Wire having just played Sts and Wigan in consecutive weeks and built some very impressive form. Going through the motions won't do any good in terms of confidence, preparation or - quite often - injuries.

Now with Mags' confirmed absence for the CC final i wouldn't be surprised to see Webb at 7 but i wouldn't have him at FB with the way ZH has played there since his switch.
Wrad and Burrow remain options at 7 and imo RB is still very much a good 7 which would put Lunt at 9 to start and Ward in the BR or on the bench.

Hardaker
BJB Watkins Ablett Hall;
Sinfield, Burrow;
Leuluai, Lunt, Peacock;
JJB, Delaney;
Bailey

Ward, Griffin, Kirke, Moore, Hauraki, Clarkson.

Ward to come on for Lunt, Sinfield or Burrow. Sinfield, Lunt and Burrow share the 9 duties.

4. Hardaker
2. Jones-Bishop
3. Watkins
12. Ablett
5. Hall
13. Sinfield
7. Burrow
8. Leuluai
31. Lunt
10. Peacock
11. Jones-Buchanan
15. Delaney
25. Ward

16. Bailey
17. Kirke
20. Griffin
21. Moore

If we need to spell Lunt, Sinfield to hooker and Ward to SO.

I'd be happy with this. I hope Brian keeps his opinion that we should leave a concussed Burrow on before we put Webb back on!

Like how Webb is judged on a similar scale to the Anti-Christ by some on here.

'fickle' doesn't even cover it.

Absurd the lengths that some are going to to keep our most creative available player out of the line-up.

Semi-Final team with Webb at half-back. Absolutely obvious selection.

Losing McGuire is a big blow.

I have said previously that Webb should slot in as his direct replacement at HB .... As he was meant to be doing at Wakefield, before we discovered the farcical actual shifting around of postions on the field to accomodate Webb back at FB.

There can be no doubt room will be made for the prodigal son to return.

Alternatively I would shift Burrow to SH ( with the command to jump into DH often and regularly ). Promote Lunt to starting hooker and leave that room on the bench for Webb.

If Burrow starts at hooker, Bailey should be starting LF with Ward on the bench, otherwise the reverse, if Lunt starts at hooker.
.

I might be way off here...

but is anyone else thinking we should recall Liam Hood ASAP? (if possible)
If we pick up another injury - to any one of Burrow, Sinfield, Lunt or Ward - at Catalans, we'll be very skinny on pivot players.
Just a bit of insurance and (I know he's been away for a while) surely better than considering playing an out of form fullback out of position?

As for Webb - I really feel for the fella, as he's been a great servant to the club. The only problem with him is we never know what we're going to get. It's almost like he has a multiple personality disorder. One minute he's an attacking genius, setting up wonderful tries. The next, he's a petulant child, swinging at people's heads, gobbing off, sliding in with his knees and doing his best to single-handedly give away penalties/scores. If only he had a better temperament, he'd be nailed on for Wembley.

Hood is already back he played for the U20's on friday.

Aaaahhhhhh.... missed that. Was just me then!

Hardaker
BJB Watkins Ablett Hall
Sinfield Burrow
Kylie Lunt JP
JJB Delaney
Bailey

Ward Griffin Kirke Moore

We could always play senior at centre, you know out of loyalty? We did it in 2005...

Sorry, but his performances dictate how he is judged. Fickle would be calling for him to be dropped after 2/3 performances.

It's the venom that seems to have swirled up that I don't like.

Some enjoy sticking the boot in. I believe he deserves more respect.

The up-rising of Zak is great for the club, and you have to evolve as a team. I'm a huge fan of Zak, I love his confidence and natural ability to find gaps, make gaps in such an ad-libbed way.

The Wakefield game was a disaster for Webb. Apart from that which games specifically are you basing this on?

I'm basing it on my opinion of him over the last 18 months. His attacking ability is brilliant, but it's his petulance and absolutely dismal tackling attempts that I don't like. He always used to have a gob and I didn't used to mind so much, but so often now he is arguing with the ref when he is blatently in the wrong and giving away penalties whilst in posession. It clearly rubs off on the players around him when he plays as well. He deserves as much respect as he seems to be showing our team, the officials and opposition players at the moment.

Zak is far from the finished article, but I would prefer an honest mistake from Zak over a brain-fart from Webb in the final.

When Leeds get there 'petulant head' on Webbs up there.

But so is Sinfield....JP....JJB....Delaney....Ablett.

Yes the penalties he gives away in attack is such a huge issue. Cant' move for it.

Warrington resting a few heads for Wembley:

Atkins, Blythe, Bridge, Cooper, Currie, Evans, Grix, Higham, Hill, McCarthy, Monaghan, Morley, Myler, Ratchford, Riley, Solomona, Waterhouse, Williams, Wood

Thats the squad for their game against London on Friday. No Harrison, Briers, Hodgson, J Monaghan, Westwood, Carvell.

Still a good team to do a job though. So much strength in depth.

I'm with you on this. Would only pick him for Wembley as an option from the bench, but that's more down to the form of others (Hardaker and Ablett mainly) than Webb. He's been an absolute star for the club since he came, and he's still a player I wouldn't mind having around for a big occasion.

I just think I'd go with Hardaker at on form.

Hardaker

BJB
Watkins
Ablett
Hall

Sinfield
Burrow

Leuluai
Lunt
Peacock
Delaney/JJB
Ward
Bailey

Griffin
JJB/Delaney
Kirke
Webb

Webb can still offer some useful options in attack, and would be pretty good to have around if you don't like the way things are going and want to change things a bit.

BM tried to be to clever at wakey. Just be simple. Hardaker at fb, burrow sh and lunt h. If the forwards do there job we'll win. Simple as that

I remember the first Leeds tackle of the '09 GF when Webb gave away a penalty for a high shot, the first Leeds possesion of the '11 GF when he incorrectly PTB and again gave away a penalty, we can't be gifting Warrington an early start and Webb still makes his mistakes in big games. Allowing Makinson to score in last year's GF and the dropped high ball against Manly that he got away with a couple of others. He does bring plently of good but so do all the alternatives without the brainfarts that we really can't afford.

7 - Burrow
9 - Lunt
SUBS - Griffin, Kirke, Clarkson, Ward

If Lunt is having a great game and can last then you can leave him and Burrow as they are which would leave Webb hard to bring on off the bench whereas Ward can cover if Lunt does needs resting or simply go on in the back row instead if not.

When he'd shepherded the ball dead and the Video Ref incorrectly awarded a try? Harsh to blame him for that. Or to ignore the game-changing try he scored in the same game. The results in the games you mentioned were pretty good also.

Can't help but agree that there are negative aspects to his game nowadays (penalties and attitude), but not sure you could fault him as a big game player. Personally I wouldn't move Hardaker from fullback, but the current version of Webb plays pretty much the same game as McGuire ball-in-hand anyway and for me is the obvious replacement without messing around with the rest of the team.

Of course it was his fault. And it was a try. Seems only you disagree

It was a Try CI Webb dropped a bollock luckily he still played a key role in helping us get the win but as time has gone on the gamble to play him is becoming bigger!!

His body was in contact with the ball and his arms were over the whitewash before Makinson touched it down. Dead ball, no?

*edit* Just watched it again. It was undoubtedly an error by Webb in not making more sure that the ball went dead (even though, from memory, we'd just defended 4 full sets on our line and the team must have been desperate to avoid another dropout), but, as stated, he was in contact with the ball with part of his body over the dead-ball line. Unless I've got the rules wrong (a possibility) then that's a drop-out. Also it was a fingertip knock-on by Makinson. Typical Leeds-loving Ben Thaler.