Ashton
Bateman
Crowther
Currie
Drinkwater
Dufty
Harrison
King
Lindop
Musgrove
Nicholson
Philbin
Powell
Ratchford
Taylor-Wray
Thewlis
Walker
Whitehead
Wood
Yates

Thinking Dufty will be on the bench.

Ratchford or Lindop at centre? Lindop presumably more match fit so go with him. Could be a really interesting bench.

You've missed Williams out.

Stronger than I thought.

Objectives:

1. No bans
2. No injuries
3. Minutes for Dufty (but see 2)
4. Win match

lindop at centre for me, dufty starts, same as with fitz, no point starting him on the bench and wasting two subs.

Quote ="Fantastic Mr Cat"lindop at centre for me, dufty starts, same as with fitz, no point starting him on the bench and wasting two subs.'" Seems Burgess agrees. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cos-clash/ Just wondering whether it would be worth getting Ratchford some gametime off the bench maybe? Big injury to come back from cold straight in to the play offs and if we lose a halfback or two threequarters through suspension / injury he'll likely be needed.

Quote ="Fantastic Mr Cat"lindop at centre for me, dufty starts, same as with fitz, no point starting him on the bench and wasting two subs.'" Seems Burgess agrees. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/sp ... cos-clash/ Just wondering whether it would be worth getting Ratchford some gametime off the bench maybe? Big injury to come back from cold straight in to the play offs and if we lose a halfback or two threequarters through suspension / injury he'll likely be needed.

Agreed.

Ratch on the bench, with Powell or Walker, Crowther and Philbin?
Rest Yates
Harrison and Musgrove as starting props.

The more radical option would be to find a place for Wood and Whitehead. That would probably be at the expense of Zane (who's played well recently) and Jordi - just to give them game time ahead of the play offs. Can't see it happening.

i'm guessing we're in play off mode, i'd like whitehead to get a bit more time, but it aint happening now

actually thats a bit of a weird one, he's been 18th man a few times, but i get the impression, if we lost a middle from the 17, wood would (ha) be in the 17 over whitehead.

Just reading CTW won’t be in the 17, Lindop is in at centre and doubtful Ratchford gets in to the 17 also. Plan is that Dufty will play the full 80.

I reckon that if Lindop has a strong game, there's a fair chance he'll keep his place for the play-offs. There's lots to like about Tai, but his 'pass/don't pass' decision-making is shocking. Two big examples of that last week. He somehow got away with both of them then, but that won't always be the case, as Burgess will well know.

Good for Dufty to get match fitness and back at right time for playoffs. Hopefully no injuries and no bans.

Burgess said he expects Tai to only be out the 1 week.

Were running for the line and cannot leave anything on the paddock, as we still could finish second. The squad selection reflects this. I hope that Dufty and LIndop should start at full back and centre respectively.

The execution of those plays was sub optimal, but you don't drop someone for two plays where both outcomes were tries.

Outcomes against that Huddersfield defence are hardly relevant. What's more relevant is if he makes the same poor decisions in big games. He wouldn't have got away with it against Wigan's defence.

I’m a little torn with the Tai / Lindop (and Wrench) situation. Those 2 moments against Hudds would deffo have been fluffed against better opposition. But as others have said he is more solid in defence and that could get us home in a tight game. I think Wrench has been a bit suspect in defence and although Lindop hasn’t played many games i feel he has been more dependable.
I think during the playoffs we will revert back to Tai as i think the games will be tighter and we have other strike options across the pitch to make up for his lack of attacking prowess.

I don't think anyone is arguing that case. It just highlighted his attacking weakness in relation to passing/decision making and whether this may cost us.

I long for the day when we can have a centre like Wardle, until then Tai can attempt to improve in this area under the watchful eye of one of the best - Gleeson.

There’s a lot to like about the Rodster (trademark) but Thewlis must get very frustrated.

Just to clarify, I wouldn't have dropped Tai for this week either, despite those two plays. My point was just that with Tai having been left out (for whatever reason), Lindop now has a good chance to make a claim for keeping his place. As I said, there's lots to like about Tai, and hopefully he can improve the parts of his game that still need work.

I've been more impressed with Lindop in his few matches than I have with Wrench to be honest.

Tai is far from the finished article. He has improved this year - particularly his defensive reads, but decisions in attack need to be worked on.
He's first choice for me at RC but Lindop is not far behind.

Have we even seen Lindop at right centre yet? I thought his games at centre were on the left (when King was injured) and, to state the obvious, it does make a difference whether you are passing left or right.

To be clear, Im not Roderick's dad. But we did spend a lot of the earky season bemoaning our RHS defence and, over the course of the year, Thewlis and Tai have formed a terrific defensive partnership - not just watertight, but aggeessive. Let's not chuck that away because Tai got greedy when we were 60-0 up.

there's no way roddy's getting dropped now, if he's fit he's in

both him and king have done a decent job in replicating what wigan's centres did for them (and if you read next door's forum, plenty of people lamenting that their backs minus king haven't let them get a roll on the same this year) and whilst its not classy 80's centre play, there's less room for that in the modern game, shame that it is.

True. For me it wasn't the greedy try. It was that early pass to Thewlis obliterating the overlap that made me rub my eyes in disbelief. But I like Tai and think he is nailed on the the playoff games.

I wonder if Tai would be better in the BR, then we would still have Wrench, Lindop and King to play with. Tai doesn't seem to have the mind or passing abilities for a centre.