Sounds great but Sam Powell doesn’t need to be interchanged.

I agree with this. We’re better off with Powell and Bourouh than signing someone else

I rate Lussick and would be happy to see him here. We’ll need to sign a hooker or halfback for sure. A player who can play in both roles would be ideal but if we did sign an out and out hooker like Lussick, at least you have the option to play Powell in the halves in an absolute emergency. If we got some help in keeping Hastings here thrown in to the bargain than why not.

100% yes.

Both Bennett and Wane as COACHES must see more in Powell than some supporters do.

Always has given 100% for the club and led by example as far as I am concerned!

Powell is deceptivly tough as teak and is (IMO) a classy operator from 9

Danny houghton gets all the pludits for having a very similar game / style to Powell, yet Powell just gets detractors from a lot of Wigan fans.

im a left scratching my head.

Is it just me that read that last sentence in an Italian accent?

Nope

Proved again today that we fly when he is on the park.

Agreed. His kicking game is ten times that of Tommy's.

Smith surely will start against Salford. TL's kicking was dreadful today and after he was taken off Smith showed us all what a proper kicking game looks like.
The whole of the backs play better when Smith is at 7 with Hastings at 6.

Harry Smith has to start at 7 for the foreseeable future, his kicking game passing game and leadership/direction is miles better than Tommy. Tommy would be a decent option for backup hooker but at 7 he’s dreadful, his kicking game is the worst I’ve ever seen from a halfback

What I’d love to know is who is saying Tommy can be our main kicker at the end of sets? When he’s on he’s probably doing 80% of the kicking. Is it him demanding it? Lam asking that he does the job? Or just by default because nobody else wants it?

It’s been absolutely dire so far this season but I’d love to know how he’s getting the job before criticising Leuluai himself.

The lad looks like he could potentially be an immense talent, and I'm all for giving him more game time and the odd 80 minutes.

I'd want to see him play and shine (in attack and defence) in some high-stakes games before entertaining the idea of having him as our starting 7 in front of Tommy. TL has played in (and won) more semi-finals and finals than Smith has had hot dinners, and despite his limitations is still supremely fit.

If we end up in a final later this year against Saints, I'd be much more comfortable with Tommy playing from the start.

Agree, but if you're good enough.....

I'm not sure that holds true. Partington and Byrne are both clearly good enough but as a starting pair I would say not....or at least not yet. It all depends on the circumstances you introduce them into. Harry Smith is clearly good enough too and I would want his game time to increase significantly over the course of the season. However, I'm not sure throwing him in and taking a sink or swim approach is the best way to fulfill his undoubted potential.

Interestingly when I watched where Smith was defending he seemed to have been shunted out to centre. Was this deliberate to reduce the amount of tackling, which is clearly not the strongest area of his game. Even with Tommy playing we looked a bit soft down the middle with plenty of easy meters available to KR. If the big lads are not cutting down that space Smith could get steam rollered.

Playing prop every week and playing in the halves are totally different.

Clearly in the physical sense they are. However props don't face the mental challenges a half does. A prop is responsible for his own performance, a half for the team's. That is equally, if not more, of a drain on an inexperienced player. It might be a bad example as we have Boris but I wouldn't want a 19 year old to run the country no matter how promising he looked!

Is Boris Johnson our new marquee half?

Did you see the yards he made when he ran over that Asian child.

Needs to add a kicking game though to be genuine marquee

But he has a kicking game. He kicks the poor all the time.

And he's quite a grub(ber) too...