Its only his first hit out with his new club so no panic yet

At the moment it actually seams a simple task for royce as the players are making the choice for him. It would be trickier to fit everyone in if they all played well or were all appauling.

FB lance -Wellens is injured and as so will have to bid his time and earn his spot back

Gardner /Foster - These are the two weaker wingers so its up to one of them to grab a spot. If both turn out to be dodgy Royce also has the option of moving meli over and putting wheeler in that centre once shenton is better. Not to mention Ashe could offer up a wing option.

So at the moment two years for foster and an extention for gardner seams to have been a very good idea.

Makinson is clearly a first choice on the sheet so gets a wing spot.

Shenton when fit will move wheeler. but wheeler could move meli too.

Lomaskell to continue. If lomax is injured. Moved lance forwards and wellens to FB. ifGaskell is injured Wheeler gets his chance as he has a kicking game too.

Simples

Or back on planet Saints, we will pick up a handbag full of injuries, and will be digging through the under 20s to find anyone capable of pulling on a jersey!

That was part of the point though in the backs we have alot of depth. with four options for fb. five at half back before we need to resort to wilkin. five wingers before we start needing the likes of wheeler or gaskell to do a job there. our weakest position is probably centre. But thats the case across the league.

second rowers we have a plentiful supply of.

So there should be no issue getting a kicker in the halfbacks.

prop depth will depend on if la frank can do a job there. if megennis can do a role. other wise we look a little shalloow there with no big work horse like graham.

He was ill, according to Twitter.

After last night I'd probably go with a backline of this, when all fit:

6. Lance Hohaia
2. Ade Gardner
3. Michael Shenton
17. Gary Wheeler
21. Tommy Makinson

20. Lee Gaskell
7. Jonny Lomax


I now think Gaskell has to play after seeing the kicking game of Jonny and Lance. Lance looks a real attacking threat and should be included at Full Back whilst Jonny needs time to be allowed to progress. Makinson simply has to be in the team somewhere and for me he will slot in nicely on the wing at the moment. Wheeler showed some slight hints at what he can do yesterday, nearly broke through a couple of times and should eb given a chance to expand on that with some game time. I'd give the other centre spot to Shenton and Meli would miss out for me as I don't think he offers as much all round as the other two. Then its the Jamie / Ade debate and for me Ade is a far safer option, I don't think I can remember him making a glaring error in years. Makinson and Lomax can both kick goals so Jamie shouldn't be kept in on that point alone.

Gardner a safer option than Foster? In what aspect?

I'd bin Gardner myself, he isn't better than Foster in any aspect of his game, but is 30 rather than 20.

Gardner has survived this long because we've never had a youth player come through that's been good enough to oust him, in Foster, Makinson and Ashe we've now got 3.

I think Gardner is safer than Foster both in defence and under pressure from kicks. Foster is turning into Meli when it comes to dealing with kicks. However, Foster has youth on his side and time to learn, I suppose it depends on whether you want to be sure that a blunder won't be made or if you wan't Foster to try and learn from experience.

If you want to be sure that a blunder won't be made, I'm not sure Gardner is your man

Fair point, but I'd rather bet on him than Foster.

Not much between ade and foster. Both struggle to beat a man, both average with ball in and both dodgy in defence and under kicks.

They both can finish very well near the line.

I think Jamie is in danger of believing his own hype and more concerned with how he looks instead of playing rugby. I highly rated him over the last season and half but the back end of last year hed become a liability.

I think people have forgotten that Ade was in good form and had a new lease of life under Royce prior to his season ending injury. His defence was good on Friday and he ran the ball up strongly.
Seems as though we have quite a few 3 into 2 selection problems at half back and wing, our biggest problem short term is lack of quality of centres. Think I would put Sia in at centre for part of the games, to add some "punch".

Hell no. His defence is crap. It was crap on Friday. And wasn't he partnering Meli in the GF when Shenny went off injured? Nightmare.

I agree, the days of sia playing centre are long gone.

I think lomax moved to the Wing when shenton went off at old Trafford as he dine his ankle, so think it was Meli and lomax on the left when they punished us.

Nope. Lomax went to the wing, then centre, then further infield. Meli was on the wing and Soliola at centre. Leeds realised then that Christmas had come early.

That may well have been the case, but having read through his twitter feed at the weekend he was critical of his own performance, that's not what I would expect from someone believing his own hype.

He's a young lad with time on his side, mistakes will be made and it's how he reacts to these which will determine the player he will become.

I think it was noteworthy that at one point he made a deliberate call for a bomb and caught it. His game improved after this.

Is that what happened? Meli started at left centre, but got shuffled to the wing when Wellens went off, but didn't he then swap to right centre when Shents got injured?
Anyway, no to Soliola in the centre. Shenton, Wheeler, Meli and indeed Makinson would be preferable to for me. Keep the beef in the middle. Despite a couple of missed tackles, Soliola came up with a few monster plays on Friday.

Meli was on the wing. That bit I'm never going to forget! I remember saying to my Dad sitting next to me that we are finished because Meli is on the wing.

Fully fit there are selection problems all over the field for royce.

There is no reason to player the same team week in and week out. We had four/five props in the widnes match if you count megennis. You add TP to that rotation is a must for a fully fit front row. That means some weeks TP or La frank dont play whilst megeniis does.

Same in the backs we dont have to play the same FB each week or the same wingers. I know you can only rotate so much to maintain fitness but take the easter weekend.If we have a fully fit side why not.

wigan game

Wellens. Foster. meli. shenton. makinson. lance. gaskell. TP.roby.LMS.Wilkin.sia.Flanaghan.

easter monday

makinson. foster. wheeler. shenton. gardner. lance. lomax
Clough. roby. perry. dixon. sia. flannery

You've not mentioned Magennis, there. For me, he needs to be out on loan this year.
He's way down the peccking order in the back and front row, despite showing glimpses. He needs regular first team action, whether that be for a SL club or lower league club like Leigh.

I'm not sure he's as far down the pecking order as you make out TBH.

It's hard to mention everyone without writing so much that people think your writing an Essay.

That's why I left out subs etc. In the end we have alot of options, I just hope early in the season we use them. There is no need early on for all 5 of our best props to play every match. TP, Clough, LMS, La Frank, Perry.

Whilst a devastaing pack with one of them playing in the Loose forward position it's a bit over kill for so early in the season. Would rather 4 of them played and one had a rest week with megennis/forester etc getting a game. It reduces the chances of injury and overkill, therefore giving us a better chance of fielding a fully fit choice 17 for key games. (Wigan/later cup games/playoffs).

The same would apply to the 2nd row with Sia, Wilkin, Flannery Dixon, Flash

I agree, I think Magennis will play 15 games at least this year if he stays fit, no need to loan him out, we need him here!

agrred, we're light on front rowers, and we need plenty of cover there as its a position that generally leads itself to injuries. Shaun is a good lad and i hope he cments his place in the team this year