It's stupid that you have to name a squad for Easter Monday really. Simmons probably doesn't know who's ready to go yet. Judging by twitter, alot of the players are suffering badly at the moment.

I think you should be able to nominate a 25 or 27 man squad for both Easter games two days before your first Easter game (i.e Tuesday or Wednesday)

They should simplify it. On the morning of the game they should name their 17 at 9am, giving fans the choice of whether to bother travelling or not.

If I roll up to Widnes tomorrow and the team sheet is full of sparrow legged Wiganers I've never heard of I'll be mighty unimpressed.

Foster was tweeted that he was feeling really bad so I don't know whether that was just because it had been a tougher than normal match or whether he was coming down with something or what. But my gut instinct after what Simmons said in his post match was that we would basically be fielding an u20s side on Monday, things were that bad. That he then listed the 19 he did surprised me.

Another Redvee poster said he'd seen Wello on crutches, and Wello's tweet this morning indicated he was trying to resist chocolates today (when everyone else was going training!).

I don't think for one minute we will win the match tomorrow. I think it will be a case of damage limitation.

But they'll still be wearing Saints colours, so they still merit some support.



It could be a chance for some very youthful Saints players to show us what they are capable of based on one training session and I feel right sorry for Royce Simmons at the moment! I'll be going to Widnes to watch sparrow legged lads I've never heard of wearing the red vee and hoping they can work a miracle and beat the mighty Cas!

COYS!

Ladbrokes have a Cas win at 7/2 which seem good odds given the rumours about the available players. Or was that not what you ment?

Your all forgetting that Cas will be in exactly the same boat, and infact will have it tougher, as they will have a long tiring coach journey prior to the game and will be facing an hostile away crowd.

I personally expect Royce to rotate some of the forwards. For example i see no reason why the likes of Hale and Dixon and Ashurst cant form the starting backrow. Two of these three players will be fresh.
I would look to rotate the props heavily, so would start with Graham and LMS but have TP and Mcgennis on the bench.

The backs shouldnt really be that beaten up compared to the forwards, so they should be able to handle another 80 minute slot. Though i must say I suspect Jonny Lomax may get rotated at some point.


Overall i think the team could look something like the following

Makinson
Gardner
Shenton
Meli
Foster
Moore
Lomax
Graham
Roby
LMS
Hale
Ashurst
Dixon

bench: TP, Mcgennis, Wilkin, Armstrong

He might not even play Armstrong on the bench, preferring instead a forward to help ease the burden of the forwards battered bodies. Hence Soliola could be the fourth bench spot.
I think these monday games are as much about fatigue management as anything else.
You need some fresh guys to take the heavy burden while rotating the big guns as much as possible to limit their fatigue levels.

You're assuming, of course, that all of the above are actually going to play tomorrow!

You win. Millward has backed us to win and his prediciton record is awful!

Chris Irvine of the Times has also backed you to win. I would imagine everyone is backing you to win!

Josh Jones as never played Stand Off. I can assure you about that! Trust me.

Well, I copied and pasted the piece from the Saints website which specifically includes stand off in the list of positions he has played. No offence, like, but I would believe the Saints website on this occasion since they have been training him for a few years now.

I totally agree with all of this. Its more about fatigue management more than anything else. Great Post.

You can't rotate the squad at this stage if there are no senior players to bring in. Losing a game on purpose would just be a waste, given the run we've got where wins are going to become a rare thing one would think.

This mess just highlights how poor the recruitment policy is at Saints. Sure it's nice to have local kids when the squad is healthy, but when it's not there is no papering over the cracks like other SL clubs can, ours are laid open and everything crumbles rather quickly.

I don't think the problem lies in local kids but in the number of players we dispatched at the end of last season. They might have all wanted to leave for all I know but at the time it appeared to be reckless and I think that is proving the case now.

Various websites are saying that Jon Wilkin is going to partner Lomax in the halves, with Andrew Dixon filling in for Wilkin. I guess we have got to that point when poor old Wilkin has to do a job he has expressly said he doesn't feel he is best suited to doing!

You really think it's Eamonn writing the squad info? It's sone guy with alot time on his hands who obviously as wrote down the wrong info. I've Bern watching Josh since the age of 15 for England and St Helend and I can assure you he as never played Stand off. The lad also played centre for Chorley before moving to Blackbrook, where funnily enough he also played centre.

For England U15 and U16 guess where he played? Centre. For Saints U18 guess where he plays? Centre. He as filled in on the wing for the U20's so I guess they've got summat right.

No. I assume the people writing the squad info are given the squad info by people who train the squad. Why should I assume it's Eamonn?




So if he has filled in on the wing, why can he not have filled in at stand off? Have you watched every single game he has played?

Saintsfan you're picking a argument for no reason at all. Roby as played on the wing for Saints 1st team. Would you describe him as a hooker / winger? Stop being a ding bat.

I watch 90% of our junior teams. I watch our Scholarship teams home and away. Josh as never played Stand off on all the games I have watched nor as even filled in at that position.

Very poor by the Saints website as it gets people like yourself all excited thinking these young lads can come in and fill valuable positions on our team, without them even doing it at junior level.

Shut up.

I said he had PLAYED at stand off, not that he WAS a stand off. I just read what was said on the website. And you haven't seen him play in every match so there may well have been matched when he HAS played at stand off. Young players play in many positions, that is the policy at Saints. They get good training that way.

But I'm saying nothing further on that.

Meanwhile, Saints have added another u20s player to their first team today: Joe Greenwood. He's a prop forward. Now, IS he a prop forward in your book or is he a centre? It says PROP FORWARD on the Saints website.

Given that Saints appear to have promoted a PROP FORWARD this weekend, that would suggest one of our other PROP FORWARDS is injured. Since Josh Perry was already out, that leaves us with Jammer, TP or LMS out as well.

I wonder who else will suddenly appear on the Saints website before tomorrow's match!

I must admit the quality of strength in depth of the Saints side is no where near as good as it was in say 2006. Having said that you have to move with the times and we have copped some pretty horrendos injury lists in recent years and have still managed to reach Grand Finals and Challenge Cup Finals. I can honestly say I would rather have home grown players in our squad even if they aint experienced rather than paying over the hill Australians who are past it. Home Grown players are going to get vital experience playing over the next few weeks which will stand them in great stead in the future. Makinson looks a real talent from what I have seen of him and looked at home at Full Back when Wello went off injured last Friday. Jamie Foster has been sensational this season scoring plenty of Tries and Kicking Goals, Jonny Lomax has been great at Scrum Half, Shaun Magennis has played well considering he has been shunted up to the Front Row. The future's bright at Saints and when we get all our injured players back we will be in fine fettle.

Joe Greenwood is actually a second rower! I kid you not.

Well, if you look at the Saints site, you will see that as a first team member, he is a prop forward. Presumably that is what he is going to play tomorrow.

And besides, wasn't Tony P a second rower when we recruited him? Yet he seems to play prop to me.

You're the editor for the Saints website and I claim my £5. To be fair Joe is a very big lad for his age but needs to fill out. Will probably move to prop when he does.

However you can't have a lad playing wide Second row for the U18's and U20 then have him then play right down the middle at prop for the first team. There is no papering the cracks here it's very poor editing by the Saints website, that's all I'm trying to say.

Without trying to sound ar&ey you should get down to the scholarship games that start next week. Some excellent talent at U15 and U16 level and they're great matches. Saints play Hull next week.

No, I'm just curious after reading something on RedVee about the 19 not being the actual 19 and that things are worse than they appear from the stated 19. I've been hopping on and off the Saints site this weekend to see which u20s players are going to be joining us tomorrow.

It may be a case of desperation by Saints that they are having to recruit to these positions and the lads they are picking are the best fit for tomorrow. I doubt it has anything to do with the editing. We let go of a lot of players last season and that was an error by the club. If we have to field a team tomorrow and we have too few or no props available, for example, then it appears that Joe Greenwood is going to have to play prop.