According to the other site, it looks like Walmsley might be out for a month injured.

Didn't Jones leave the field injured too?

Jones did with a clash of heads so shouldn't be too serious I wouldn't have thought.

Walmsley will miss a couple, Jones should be okay but if he's judged to have concussion may be unavailable this week.

FFS.

Percival is due back and Ghostmont may be ready in the next couple of weeks.

Amor, laffranchi, Manu, ghostmont and walmsley out for the next few weeks at least, sia and lms out of form, Roby putting in 60 tackles to compensate, Wilkin was completely invisible until he moved to 5/8th vs Warrington and is missing a shocking number of tackles and masoe having to play the wrong role to compensate.

Jones isn't as effective in the second row and needs to be kept at 4, but Percival will probably see him moved (I'd personally stick turner in at 13, at least he'd have to up his work rate)

Backs against the wall for the forwards even before you consider hinted at attitude problems...

Do you really think Jones is not as good in the pack. Personally I think he keeps it tight defensively.

You know I'm on the one man campaign to keep Jones at centre (also joined with the bring Apollo back to saints campaign now too)



He keeps it tight defensively out wide too. I have no doubt he'd do a job defensively in the second row, as I think he does out wide in the centres - but we have Flanaghan for that, and jones offers less with the ball than him in the pack!

That said, jones stats have fallen off a cliff in recent times, so I don't know if he's affected by the off pitch dramas, is one of the people hinted at for the off pitch dramas, in need of a rest, or (finally) hitting the difficult sophomore hump for youngsters before they take the final step to first class player. Either way, he's having a bit of a hot and cold season, but it can hopefully be ironed out.

The thought of this fills me with dread!

It may do, but were rapidly running out of options, especially if there's a need to drop players who are "only picking up their pay cheque"

Lms has to be pushed forward if walmsley is out, so who do you put in the back row? Wilkin soliola wellens? At least 2 of those players are woefully out of form, have been embroiled in whatever has gone wrong since cas and aren't offering a threat out wide. The other one is wellens whose about as dividing on here as it can get! Greenwood, like walmsley offers some great things, but he's never going to be the one to dictate the line speed, and get aggressive, which is what we need more than anything vs Huddersfield. Nor are any of them tackling machines, ready to take the work load off Roby. Of course, we can bring in Flanaghan, but what you gain in tackling you lose in attack (even against woefully out of form players!)

I've been crying out for an actual lock for some time as opposed a second row playing in the middle of the field, and long term I think Thompson could be that man, but it's all hands to the pump in the props in the immediate future so what do you do?

Of course this entire dilemma is avoided if charnock gets picked. I would be looking at a pack of:

Thompson Roby Masoe
Flanaghan Greenwood
Charnock/ Turner

Savelio Richards Wellens Walker

Which would at least start to root out whoever wellens was talking about (and say missing 6 tackles in a single game isn't acceptable)

Lomax Swift Dawson Percival Makinson Lance Walsh
Masoe Roby Thompson Jones Flanaghan LMS

Sia Savelio Greenwood, Richards

I'm sorry but LMS needs to be removed from the team and sent to cumbria. All the players need to realise that lack of effort WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ANY LONGER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and they all need a real rocket up their backsides, or at least be made to sit in a room and let the fans tell them how it is.

Isn't that what twitter is there for?

According to Wish FM on Twitter Lomax, Jones and Walmsley aren't fit for Friday.

Friday's shaping up to be a fun evening

I would agree but with Walmsley also likely to be out, it's becoming a simple numbers game for those who can play prop.

I would not play any academy player at any cost. If we had one prop other than Masoe left, then sure I'd drop LMS, but at this point we are getting down to second rowers playing prop.

Hohaia
Makinson Percival Dawson Swift/ Galbraith
Turner?/wheeler? Walsh
Thompson Roby Masoe
Flanaghan Greenwood
Charnock/ Turner

Savelio Richards Wellens Walker

So that's lomax, jones, (swift), wheeler, Amor, walmsley, laffranchi, ghostmont and Manu out, Wilkin, lms and soliola dropped

Edit: completely forgot about Wilkin ... Shows how much impact he had!

Wellens Swift Dawson Percival Makinson Lance Walsh
Masoe Roby Thompson Jones Flanaghan LMS

Sia Savelio Greenwood, Richards

I would not shift the team around to have Wellens still playing 70 minutes on the bench.

His best position is FB, if Lomax is injured then this is the time I would have said pre-season that Wellens comes in to fill the gap.

Wellens must play FB.

If he does then we will lose all our attacking threat and we will just keep throwing passes to the left all night.

Apparently three 'new' players are coming in on Friday.

[url=http://www.wishfm.net/news/local-sport/three-injured-for-saints/Listen here[/url (just scroll down a bit to the podcast)

I don't subscribe to that for many reasons.

Plus the only other alternative is to disrupt Makinson from the Wing. And then play Wellens 10 mins on the bench and throw together some unknown wing centre partnership.

So to me moving one man to FB, is better than moving 3 and leaving Wellens on the bench regardless of if they play to the left all night.

Our injury record is a joke.

But at this point any player playing with spirit and aggression would be better than that soft southern pudding. It's getting to the stage where winning the game is actually less important than the manner in which it is played. Pretty much all saints fans at the moment want to see Heart, Commitment, spirit, determination, and more basically, Effort. Play with those attributes and you will still win games (See DW stadium for details).

Lomax,Walmsley & Jones all miss out this Friday with only Percival due back