Warrington Squad

Sitaleki Akauola, Matty Ashton, Blake Austin, Luther Burrell, Josh Charnley, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Anthony Gelling, Chris Hill, Luis Johnson, Toby King, Tom Lineham, Jake Mamo, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Declan Patton, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Danny Walker

Ashton
Lineham
Gelling
King
Charnley
Austin
Ratchford
Hill
Clark
Cooper
Currie
Masila
Clark

Akauola
Philbin
Davis
Walker.

Couldn't give you an argument...perhaps Mamo might carry seniority at FB over Ashton

Ashton looks solid...throw him in there i say.

Ashton
Lineham
Gelling
King
Charnley
Austin
Ratchford
Hill
Clark
Cooper
Currie
BMM
Clark

Davis
Philbin
Akuola
Burrell

Can see Gelling costing us tomorrow with his indiscipline in the defensive line.

Ashton

Lineham
Gelling
King
Charnley

Austin
Ratchford

Hill
D. Clark
Cooper
Currie
Murdoch-Masila
J. Clark

Philbin
Davis
Akauola
Burrell/Johnson (personally I'd go with Johnson. SL experience and a proven RL Player. Blood Burrell in against weaker teams such as Huddersfield.)

Luis Johnson should play instead of Jason Clark. But we all know he won't.

I think that you are correct about J Clark and I'm expecting that he'll start at 13. Personally I'd go with Burrell on the bench along with Philbin and Akauola. Assuming that Ashton starts at FB then I think that he'll go with Walker. Either Walker, Davis or, dare I say it, Patton can cover dummy half allowing D Clark to either go off or move to 13. Mamao would only be there to cover injury or someone having a mare.

Kendall is the Ref.

I think Burrel has to play really, we need to know what he looks like when he knows the plays / positioning and is fit for the task. I would also like to see Walker in there as well. It means we can use D Clark as a forward if needs be, plus he adds an attacking threat which was sorely missing from the team last year.

Bench:

Philbin
Akauola
Burrel
Walker

Good squad on paper but unless SP has introduced some decent tactics - which we didn't see in the 2nd half of last season except the cop matches - then I fully expect a Wigan win.
Not really excited about this season I'm afraid until our coach shows that he has learnt from last season.
Obviously still.want a Wire win though.

First game of the season, anything can happen. I don't expect either side to be firing on all cylinders, soft pitch (although no rain forecast), new halfback combinations for both teams, new refereeing directives, a few players out on either side.

I have to confess the heart is starting to quicken, for me Wigan are and always will be Public Enema No1

Magic. Nice one.

I don't...I see him as the key creating attention as he always has to create space for Charney...as he always did.

Seeing their line up in the Hanley/Bell/Edwards days did loosen the bowels somewhat.

For me it was Offiah, I couldn’t breathe when he had the ball until he was tackled (or scored because otherwise I would be dead as I can’t hold my breath very long).

D. Clark is already a forward.

True. But because of the way the modern game is played I tend to think of him as a SH. Similarly the old SH seems to have mutated to become a second SO. Perhaps I should have said 'an extra forward'.

I'd rather utilise Daryll to play 9/13 and play 3 props. Put all 3 props in the front row of the scrum (like Jacko Tamati and Boyd) and Daz puts his head in at the back.

We don't need to look for a traditional type loose because our 1 gives us the extra pivot.

Note...before some bright spark says Tamati was a hooker...
He was a prop that wore 9.

Ashton to start FB

Well that pretty much tells us who is in the halves then.

I love it when Ratch is up in the halves. Unless Pies try and do a number in him again....Wire will snot them.