Whilst it's obvious we need at least one quality halfback, I'm not convinced ALL our problems derive from the lack of quality halves at the club.

What will be interesting is seeing how wi*an cope without their two first choice halves. Where we've played a second rower and fullback there in recent weeks, wi*an are reported to be playing reserve halfbacks Sam Powell (20) & George Williams (1icon_cool.gif.

My guess is that wi*an will suffer far, far less than we've done.

OK, so we've not had our reserve scrum half available through injury - but I don't think the wholesale messing about with the team, and squashing players into unfamiliar positions just to accomodate them, that we've seen is anywhere near the best option. In fact, it's created an unbalanced side which is easy to defend against.

wi*an are playing London, who recently beat us, of course. My money says wi*an will stroll to victory

Not a fair comparison - we've been without our first choice everything of late, not just halves... Let's see how the pies would do without both halves, Tomkins, half their 3/4s and most of their pack and [ithen[/i we could compare notes.

Sunday v HKR (you remember them)
No Smith.
No Green after nine minutes,

No Mossop, Prescott, Dudson, Gelling or Tuson.

We managed o.k.

To be honest I am not interested in other clubs I think what has surprised me the most is how poor the club is for half backs in general. We used to have players who where good Saints reserve standard such as Matty Smith and Johnny Smith. How has it come to the stage when we don't seem to have any reserve half backs on the books. I confess I am shocked at Nathan Ashe I thought he was supposed to be ready for the first team yet at 21 and just is not at the races.

Your Wigan and win when you want tho. Your doing things the Wigan way. You've got pride in the cherry & white

So what if you did ok, nobody cares on here.

F*cking idiots!

Slipping Gelling in that list????? shame on you he's someone the other team would miss.

Btw Is that Ryan Hampshire not a Halfback?? seems to be doing ok in the kids teams

I think Hampshire or Williams will get a run out alongside Powell.
or we can move Sam to 6 Richards to fullback with Hughes and Powell on as one wing pairing.

So you had your first choice 1, 9 and 13 then? Thanks for confirming there is no comparison.

A few on the Wigan board were of the opinion Tomkins was the difference. So without any halves a glut of others including our main threat Lomax there is no comparison. Take Tomkins out as well as per our last 3 months & there may well be a different scoreline. Results without Tomkins suggest this as well.

I don,t think it will have as much effect as it does us, Wigoons have a reasonable structure and pattern in place, the winning margin might be less.
We don,t have any structure or game plan at all, its one rugby for us with Sia causing problems now and again.

The OP raises a valid question notwithstanding all the other permutations that we might consider. Is a team better to utilise players from other positions to fill both half back roles or do you go with younger and likely inexperienced halfbacks in red blooded half back role?

I go with the latter. The alternative is to potentially get whalloped by the likes of HKR, London and Widnes. The beauty of my point here is that you can't prove me wrong while I can reflect on what actually happened.

Still had rat boy though didn't you. How do you normally fare without him?

Smith and Green are and always have been fall guys, Wigan will want to get their young guys in there at some point soon i.e. Powell, Hampshire, Williams.

From an England point of view it is actually quite exciting having some quality young halves playing for the same club.

Saints on the other hand are just after anyone who can play in the position, we have neither an experenced veteran or quality young half back at the club. It does highlight the difference between the two clubs at present.

No, Sam went to 6 and Richards to 1.
Thornley went to 5 and Hughes to 4.

Saints decided to move their 1st choice scrum half to full back and send their first choice stand off to Salford.
Missing Gaskell is a bit like Wigan say they are missing Hock.

YAWN YAWN YAWN

Who cares about Wigan on here anyway?

This is turning into a Wigan halfback thread.

It was the O/P who mentioned the Wigan halfbacks.

YAWN YAWN YAWN

Saints moved a full back playing scrum half to full back.

Saints sent their useless unneeded player off to Salford.

HTH

Thanks, so your first choice 1, 9 and 13 were all playing as I said.

Who mentioned Gaskell? Gary Wheeler is our first choice 6 when fit and will be again when he's fit.

What a thread.

As already stated, we are also missing Lomax from full back and Roby from the pack. Our two most dangerous players that are playing in pivot positions.

On the flip side, at least wigan have a first choice half back pairing. I'm not even sure we know what ours is - Wilkin and Wheeler?

Wigan will fare better than us, because they play with a very strong structure that they've established over the past two years, so the new lads will be able to just slip into the moves. As well as having first choice half backs, they probably even have second choce half backs to back them up. They also have a pack that plays as a unit instead of carrying 2 or 3 ambivilent old men.

Which is, in a round about way, the underlying point I was hinting at.

Managed to struggle through

And just to show it can be done, we also managed without the vital full back, hooker, loose forward and top points scoring winger tonight.

I'll admit it was only Widnes and it was a struggle.

Yes you had a few key positions missing but you still had a fair few experienced, good players. Lose a few more of your pack players along with all the key players you had missing tonight and then it's a fair comparison.