Actually McGuire would be dropped for Burrow.

Sinfield would be the one making way. He should be on at LF.

Another case of Nantwich wanting the kids to play.

Watkins will be back in the team next weekend after his run out in the 20s freeing up Abbo/Delaney into the 2nd row/loose.

It's still Hardaker into the team, McGuire out however you gloss it over and it's still a terrible idea.

Burtrows influence came because he was at dummyhalf not scrumhalf. He worked well as an impact sub.
I know he moved to SH later but it was his movement from the DH position that helped drag leeds into the game.

Spot on finglas. Burrow was much better at dummy half and gave us the pace at the PTB.
If Watkins is fit and can play LC then move Ablett to second row play Ali as interchange prop and leave Kirke out against Cas.
The rest stays the same.
If watkins can`t play LC move him to the RC position with Delaney in the second row.

I was one of those that used to advocate Burrow as an impact hooker off the bench not so long ago....I guess I just can't bring myself to concede that McDermott might just have actually got something right

I can't see Hardaker as a starting 6 this season or next. So it probably isn't something to experiment with at a time when we desperately need to try to build some momentum going into the business end of the season. We aren't going to win a GF, but that's no reason not to at least try to have a decent-ish play-off run and try to get to Wembley.

If (and it's a big IF since he's never played any senior RL there) the club see Hardaker as a 6 in future, some pre-season games and perhaps some early round CC games (if the right opposition come up) would be more likely places to try it.

Yup. x2.

I think now would be the perfect time to go back to the old tried and tested set up

Mcguire & burrow halfs, sinfield loose, ablett SR

Buderus 80mins

Hard to argue with that, given that you've suggested pretty much every positional switch conceivable so far this season.

Having a wonderful active vibrant imagination is indeed an assett. No boring sterile predictable let's stick to what we've always done from this quarter.

Try it.
Thinking outside of the box is highly liberating.

Hey, if Leroy Cudjoe is a stand-off it can't be that difficult a position to play...

Anyone blaming McGuire for the try conceded needs to think again. His defence, whilst not brilliant is not aided by a bizarre decision to have McGuire & Burrow defending next to each other. On that try McGuire was drawn further in-field because he was concerned about Burrow being run over the top of and so was then out of position to affect a proper tackle.

If there had been a better defensive line-up (ie not Burrow & McGuire defending next to each other) that try would probably not have been scored.

There is a fine line, however, between genius and lunacy......

Since when has there been a question mark over Burrows tackling?

Burrow is probably (along with Buderus) the best (copybook) defender at the club but that doesn't alter the fact that he will be targetted close to the line by opposition coaches. Standing him together with probably the worst defender is not going to lessen the traffic heading his way.

Maybe not but what did happen was that the stronger defenders on our right hand side looked after Yeaman and Briscoe very well and the result took care of itself.

When flanked on one side by Hall and the other by Senior - not very often.

When there is McGuire there instead it is a problem. Burrow was not able to wrap the ball up and was in danger of being overrun so McGuire had edged inside in case the ball carrier held the ball to assist Burrow. When the ball carrier then offloaded McGuire was out of position to affect a proper tackle.

McGuire's tackling isn't great (I don't expect it to be).
Burrow's 1-on-1 tackling is ok, his technique is superb. But understandably due to his small stature he does run the risk of being overrun close to the line.

Putting those 2 together in the defensive line seems like a very poor choice to me. Especially when there is a good defender in Sinfield out on the right hand side defending where McGuire used to defend.

See my post above

Good grief man , there is no place on this thread for such sensible comment

Hardaker is definitely not Jarrod Hayne. Hayne is a world class fullback right now, who has already played a handful of games at stand off. Gould was talking generically about how long it takes to become a genuine stand off. He referred to the likes of Fittler and Lockyer who both took some time to settle into the role. Suggesting that Hardaker, who has only played on the wing for Leeds, could somehow develop into our starting stand off for next year from a handful of games at the end of this year is ridiculous.

Its just the standard ss.com obsession with taking a player who does very well in 1 position, and moving them to another. For reference see Ryan Hall to Centre/Second Row threads

I can see the potential for Hardaker to step into the stand off role, but to insinuate he will be the best at the club within a few weeks is insane. He would never get picked over Mcguire for such a 'massive' game. It would take a lot of time for him to be able to make the role his own and perhaps experimentation in the off season and a few games next year, perhaps he will be ready in 2013.
I would look to go with the settled combinations that have served well in the past as suggested earlier.

SH Burrow
SO Mcguire
LF Sinfield
H Buderus

The only experimentation McD should be doing before the semi is working out the best pack and wing/centre combinations.

And perhaps continuing the radical experiment from the second half of the QF where the ball was held onto and a foundation built before anything more elaborate was attempted?