Judging from various interviews with Lam, post game last night included, it does seem that French will be 1st choice fullback until further notice. You can definitely see why from an attacking viewpoint, we just need to see how he copes with the defensive side.

that hit on lineham in the second half was awesome.....he didnt have the ball though

I think it would be a lot better to move French to 6 and Hardaker to 1 once Gildart is back.

There is no need at all on that showing to move French away from 1.

Smith to 7.

Tommy to 9.

Locky spelled at 9 if TL can’t do the full 80.

Has to be IMO and I’d love to see Harry Smith take his chance. There’s real uncertainty over the six and seven shirts at Wigan past this season and him bursting through could help ease people’s minds.

Hardaker did enough last year to cement his starting position this year IMO. He’s kept out of trouble and got his head down, also if that were to case then why give each the 1 and 6 shirts and not play them there from the start. Yes French has done well there but all you risk doing is upsetting Hardaker who’s done nothing wrong and been punished for it. Mind you, Lams done it with Escare and also Flower just ostracised them from the team despite putting in good performances previously.

If Hardaker played at fb last night we don’t win that game. For everything he does solid, he hasn’t got the speed, creative spark or the hands that french has. Why you’d want to move french away from his best position after that game last night is beyond me!

Read a bit further pal, don’t just twist things. I said once Gildart is back, having Hardaker in the centres is better than having Hankinson there, as a team we are stronger. Now once Gildart is back, both he and Bibby are good centres so what do we do with Hardaker? Put him back to 1 and French back to 6. If we get injuries to Gildart or Bibby then Hardaker goes back to centre and a French 1.

Don’t get me wrong, French did well last night, very well, but I feel for Hardaker who got player of the years last season and he’s being put into the centres where he’s average.

Read a bit further pal, don’t just twist things. I said once Gildart is back, having Hardaker in the centres is better than having Hankinson there, as a team we are stronger. Now once Gildart is back, both he and Bibby are good centres so what do we do with Hardaker? Put him back to 1 and French back to 6. If we get injuries to Gildart or Bibby then Hardaker goes back to centre and a French 1.

Don’t get me wrong, French did well last night, very well, but I feel for Hardaker who got player of the years last season and he’s being put into the centres where he’s average.'"

Making sure people are happy is man management, without good man management skills you are a poor leader/coach/manager. What’s best for the team is making sure morale is high and people are happy in their work as you get a more productive team member.

Hmmm, interesting.
Must have missed this piece of info, I get the escare accusation even though I dont buy into escare being anything more than a bang average player and I dont get the love him from some fans.
But I've no idea what you mean by the Flowere inference?

Took his squad number off him which he weren’t happy about and stated so publicly. Is he injured? Or just not getting picked?

How is he being punished? Was he being punished when handed the centre jumper for England? I think I get where you're coming from but that's a very strange turn of phrase. I also think you're being harsh when you say avarage at centre. He was among the top performers for us last night as he was against Leeds in pre season. Don't you think he should be given a proper run there before writing him off as 'average'?

He can do a job at centre, he is a fullback and a very good one at that.

Interesting conspiracy theory
I would have thought that if he wasnt injured and just not being picked Flower would have something to say about it?
Seeing has weve said hes injured, and he hasn't stated that he isn't and hes upset with the coach or management I would suggest it's a large step to suddenly arrive at a statement that Lam has ostracised him?

Has he ostracised Joe Greenwood, Joe Bullock, mitch Clarke etc?
Certainly greenwood has also lost his shirt and not been picked so i don'tnt see that situation being any different and were not saying hes been ostracised.

Top line is Flower needs to get back fit and playing games week in week out like the be flower of 2/3 years ago, if he doesn't and keeps missing games like the last 18months then at his age hes going to be overtaken by some of the youngsters.

I'm not Lams biggest fan, but I cant accuse him of doing anything "Wrong".
I can disagree with some of his decisions (I think we should have had at least 1 of Bullock/Greenwood in the 17 last night as 5 props, 2 of which couldn't play 30misn between them and leaving 3 kids to do the rest was poor for me) but I wont be putting 2+2 together and coming up with 11 over things just to get my point across that I'm not his biggest fan.

Hardaker was very good last night.

Hes a pretty good centre and your right, hes a better FB than centre.
But it appears that the coaches think that French is a better FB than he is 6 and that Tommy at 7 with Powell at 9 is a better combination all round.

Despite me agreeing that Hardaker had a good season last year he didn't look threatening from FB once
It reinforced for me just how good Tomkins was

If French continues to perform and develop as a FB on top of his performance last night then he is a Far more threatening proposition for defences and for me I would stick with it.

Pace is huge at fullback IMO and Hardaker has lot a lot of his during his lay off. He’s still a good enough fullback but French is blistering quick and looks like a player that will thrive with the freedom the fullback role will give him. He’s said himself today he prefers fullback to halfback as he doesn’t like the organisational aspect of playing in the halves.

I agree

totally agree, its the same with Ashton at Wire, can see both having great seasons if they stay at fullback

Without wishing to argue over details, you're missing one important word: "currently". I actually don't think there's an awful lot in it tbh as he does much of what he does at fullback from centre. As others have said he doesn't have the blistering pace to exploit the space from fullback and he's never been a link player, even during his MOS time, whereas French has both of those qualities. Hardaker's strengths have always been his defence, strong carries and eye for a gap and he can utilise all of those out of centre. He just needs to add the final pass to his game, which he's more than capable of, to become a complete centre in the Gary Connolly mould. Like I say, give him this season before making those judgements.

He has a rib injury from a hit by Navarette in training. Hoping to be back for Toronto.

Cheers Kris.

I like Zak, but for me last year he didn’t show he had the running or the passing game to play fullback (our most important attacking position).

Didn’t chime into the line well like the best of them do, think Sam, Coote, Luke Dorn in his prime.

Didn’t show the elite for he showed at Cas in 2017.

Zak is elite defensively at full back.

I’m happy for french to have a crack at it. What a start last night.

I was surprised Wire didnt bomb the hell out of him. Weve yet to see him under the high ball or in a position where he has to make a last ditch tackle. If he can do those 2 things to an ok standard then i think he will keep the full back spot for now but i think Lam still sees him as a half back long term.