Do you think they're just going to try and make up for a lack of 4th senior prop with a big back row? Play Thompson 13, LMS in the 2nd row and rotate Sav and Richards at 4th prop?

Or LMS plays as 4th prop with Flanaghan Wilkin and Vea in the back row. All 3 are apparently long minutes players meaning KC can be flexible on the number of minutes any kid on the bench plays.

Not my preferred option but seems more and more likely...

I can see Lms going back to prop and us having Wilkin, Vea, flash, Thompson and Greenwood as our backrows

At Thompson's current yardage per carry you can bet he's a starting prop next season.

His lack of height is offset by good speed, footwork and most of all - the (rare) ability to sniff out gaps in the defence - rather than getting involved in the usual testosterone-fuelled swinging dick bash-a-thon.

What your describing is a tackle busting second rower though, which is the role he played at the end of last year, and should play next year. Between him, LMS and Vea we'd keep the size in the pack that gave us such an advantage in the playoffs this year. The problem is at the moment at least one of them need to be moved into the front row to compensate the lack of a 4th prop for rotation.

Thompson playing front row for us next year will be similar to Laffranchi in years past.

I'm not as worried about the pack as some. In total we have :

Amor
Walmsley
Mose
Roby
Wilkin
Vea
Thompson
Richards
LMS
Greenwood
Flanagan
Savelio
Turner (as cover)
Wellens (as cover)
Hohaia (as Roby cover)
plus any other youngsters ready to step up.

That's a lot of forwards, and in terms of quality, in my view the strongest pack in the league. They can't all play, and they won't all get injured.

If we have a weakness, it's in the threequarters. I'm very positive about the halfback pairing, which seems to me to be the best we've had since Long/Pryce. But all the very best Saints teams have had a centre who strikes fear into the opposition and gives the halves confidence to go wide : Newlove, Iro, Gibbs, Lyon, Gidley.

Percival looked as if he was really coming on last year, with a bit of beef added, but I think he has to make it this year and start to become the go-to man. Turner isn't a strike centre on his performance so far. He's the Talau to Percival's Lyon : solid but unlikely to set pulses racing when receiving the ball.

Likewise, I like our wingers. Both good lads, nothing wrong with them at all, and can find their way to the line. But let's be honest, I'd take Joe Burgess or Ryan Hall if they were on offer.

I'm not saying our threequarters are bad, at all. But our pack is the best in the league, our halves may wel turn out to be the best in the league, but our threequarters aren't, yet. That's where I'd strengthen.

I'm completely baffled by the opinion of many on the Saints pack. At full strength it steam-rollers any pack in SL (minus future additions) - not least because we possess an absolute beast of a front row which is right up there with the one Paul Anderson left.

Granted, the loss of Sia is a problem. But if Vea is half Sia's ability we'll do ok. And I haven't even mentioned several quality players (LMS and the kids) who can rotate into the 4th slot.

And if we can add another decent prop the Grand Final beckons.

You think we've got enough props that can put a good shift in? Mose and Alex need a rest after 15 mins which only leaves us with Amor who can do a good stint.

We are desperate for a prop that can do a 30 min shift and even longer if needed.

I think this year will be the year that Percy steps up from petntial to a very good centre. We will have Burns and Walsh that will give us some width with their passing game meaning Percy will get the ball in good space.

That's what I hope too - it's very hard to be a great centre if you don't get good ball from your halves.

Maybe we might see a little more from Turner too. In fact, with a relatively dominant forward pack creating space, and two proper halfbacks exploiting that space, we might even see the return of long-distance tries and exciting back-line moves. Well, we can hope anyway.

We scored a few long range tries at the start of the year when Walsh was on fire. Percy and Turner both have the speed to break the line if they get good ball.

I'd like to see Percy pin his ears back a little more when he makes a break. His first reaction is to look for the pass.

The only difference between last years' front row (which dominated every pack in SL fully fit and committed) and 2015 is Soliola's occasional stints playing a split-role between prop and SR.

The kids we have coming through should be able to patch that hole between them. And I've not included the possibility that Vea can multi-task or Saints adding another prop to the roster.

It's ridiculous to be concerned that Amor is the only player capable of doing long stretches (I'm not convinced by this argument given the performances of some of the kids this year). I mean, it's not like players of his calibre and endurance grow on trees with every SL team fielding three. One Amor is [igood enough[/i for SL!

How can anyone who witnessed the shellacking of the Catalans pack (followed by the complete nullification of Wigan's go forward) be getting jelly legs for 2015?

Crazy.

I don't want to get in another heated debate with yoû but if you think our pack was as dominate as you suggest then I want whatever your on.

Why is it every time I open a thread on this board you're marching around with a placard saying - "REPENT SINNERS: THE END IS NIGH!"?

I've never said that. You must have mistaken me for someone else who thinks your a utter clown.

I reckon Percy and Turner will go well next season with the better distribution from Walsh and Burns.

For me Percy could be international standard, he,s got great footwork, balance and speed another full season and he could be the best strike centre in superleague.

Agreed. Percival could be a real superstar.

Whilst lots of the England lads have given a decent account of themselves over the last month, I went through our line up and, realistically, the following players should all have it as a (realistic) goal to make the England squad next year -

Lomax, Makinson, Percival, Turner, Swift, Amor, LMS and Walmsley. Obvisouly they'll be competing with each other for a spot as well as the current selection, but a (hopefully) more fluid back line with Walsh and Burns running things should mean that our backs are seen in a very good light. The forwards just need to work on consistency.

I wouldn't. I bet you my month's wages that Makinson wouldn't have dropped that ball over the line like Hall did in the match against NZ last weekend and when it matters Makinson steps right up in defence as well as scoring tries no other winger in SL can manage. Nothing I have seen of Burgess makes me want to swap him with Adam Swift either. I think we have two excellent wingers.

Agree with you fully about Makinson, but Swift no way! and there are no wingers like Vollenhoven around today, wingers these days run into the opposition and rarely side step them, Hall can be a battering ram!

Swifty reminds a little bit like Joey Hayes in his style of wing play. I think we are being a bit unkind of wingers today they have far less room to work with these days and are under a lot more pressure with tactical kicks.

Think I'd have hall before any of our wingers to be honest. One dropped ball over the line doesn't make him bad.

Only need to look at Hall try scoring record for club and country to show what a top class quality winger he is.

I think the fact we're all discussing the squad and saying we possibly need a prop or a three quarter suggests we're in a very good position next season.

The squad has a very good spine with lots of size in the pack, good halves and a young backline. We also have a very flexible squad with a number of players being able to cover different positions.

We could maybe do with another player to add a little bit more depth but with the likes of Thompsion and Richards becoming 1st team players the next conveyor belt of talent like Savelio & Fozard will be looking to push their way in.

Pretty much agree with the above...

Of the players we have lost, Gardner, Beaumont & Clough & Forster (plus other young players) were non-existent to us in 2014, McDonnell was only ever short term, Laffranchi was effectively already replaced by Richards at end of last season, Soliola has been replaced by Vea, Manu is effectively replaced by Thompson (bearing in mind Wilkin & Flanagan will also be competing for back row spots again next year & LMS hopefully moving there permanently) and Wheeler is effectively replaced by Burns (with Lance covering the "utility" tag) which IMO puts us stronger than last season (Soliola aside).

My only (slight) worry would be that we need another prop, as we currently have Masoe, Amor, Walmsley & Richards as our first choices, after that we will be relying on Walker/Hand or moving a back rower such as Thompson/Savelio/LMS up to prop as cover which wouldnt be ideal...especially if we picked up a couple of injuries (Amor & Masoe both had injuries last year and were missing for parts of the season. a Wigan's pack looks a lot stronger than last year with Tautai, Mossop & Patrick added to their front row, with plodders like Dudson being released and I would like to see us have a similar depth & competition for places in the front row like we have in pretty much every other position. That said, would rather see us wait for the right player to become available than panic buy for the sake of it.

Looking at Wigan's signings, they must surely need to shed some players off their books and a year's deal for Scott Taylor could be a good addition for us if we could get him?

I think we are pretty much well covered for short term injuries next season, if we don't suffer as much in previous years then it gives us the chance to rotate our squad a bit and give more game time to Greenwood, Sav, Charnock and Hewitt.
We are in a decent position with LMS and Thompson moving up to the front row if needed with Lance, Dawson and maybe Wello covering in the backs.
For me we will miss Manu's unpredictable style of play, with Walsh and Burns I can see us being a bit more structured, if we only have half the injuries of last season I can see us going very well for 2015. Saints and Warrington are my top 2 next season.

If we can rotate the front row without affecting the back row then I'm more than happy for the next gen kids to be brought through. I guess the easiest thing will just be to bring lms back into the front row and bring Flanaghan or greenwood in ...

Does anyone know which kids are being brought through to first team next year?

(Also not convinced by Warrington being top 2, I don't do predictions but on paper I'd say Saints and Wigan are so far ahead of the rest it's scary...)