You missed Mikele who has gone and Bullock who is missing.... so 5 props missing for us... Harrison is doubtful given its his first time in the squad since injury. Your clearly favourites on your own ground given who is missing from our middles....plus I'm guessing the ref will be in your starting squad as well.

We haven't been at full strength once this season so how do you know what our full strength looks like? I certainly don't. Add bullock and mikaele leaving and I'd say we are hurting more than you, certainly at prop. 3 out suspendedjust reeks of the desperation of the disciplinary panel to get you guys a jump start.

This is a difficult one to call, and Saddened makes some reasonable points although I think he overplays our 'speed' in the backs.

Both sides depleted in the pack. A lot depends on Powells starting line up. I really hope Kasiano is on the bench - then he can cause havoc after 20 mins. I'd like to hope that we could be even up to that point.
I think a lot depends on how well Hurrell goes. If Saints have the majority of the ball and get it to him he could do some real damage, but it also depends on his defence. He's been found out recently.

I thought your defence was fine the problem you had was going forward. The backs need to step up.

Exactly the same as what i'd go for, seems to be the most logical. If Green does make the bench i hope Powell actually lets him loose.

One thing that really concerns me at the moment is the oppositions attacking kicks. We got out of jail by shear luck last week. I remember Thewlis taking a difficult one under pressure but there were lots of other kicks that could have dropped straight into a Wigan players lap.
We need to deal with them a bit better on Thursday.

Wigan kicked really well but conditions didn’t make it easy to catch, quite the reverse I would say.

Harrison is playing according to Powell, I guess it's a similar situation to Batchelor for us. If you look at what i posted, there isn't room on there for two more props without two dropping off that list. You're not putting more than 5 props in your 17 surely? We're missing Walmsley, Paasi, Sironen, Mata'utia and Knowles. That's our five biggest forwards. There's no clear favourites in terms of lineups I don't think. You having your first choice backrow playing and us not tips it in your favour, plus the fact that you've been playing better than us all season. And I'm not sure the referee comment is accurate either, we've had no favours this year at all.

Hopefully Green gets more game time. Looks a top prospect.

Been on the bench the last 2 games but only got on the pitch for 7 minutes over the 2 games.

Yep the way Powell has (or hasn't) used his young forwards says so much. I think he's being protective & thinks they'll get flattened & hurt. The recent reserves score v Wigan also tells a tale that our young back-up is not ready yet. To be honest we'd be better having Matty Russell doing 10 minutes bashing it up in the middle than picking a young forward who isn't going to be used.

Ref- J Smith
V Ref Thaler.

I'm pretty happy with those appointments. I hope Mr thaler decides to pay us back on the decisions that went against us last week in the offside try and the minikin disallowed try. It would be good to beat them off a dubious decision just to see the mushroom cloud coming from the North at full time.

Come on does not matter if we win fairly without any drama, they will find a way to say it was given to us.

No Percival for us either according to those in the know.

He’s picking up more and more knocks, mind you it is not a surprise given his role in the team.

We have been here before. Understrength St Helens team. They still win.

They're basically running with Matty Lees and Scarsbrook in the prop rotation and will be youngsters. very close game to call this, but i think we have enough to win. Just need a big effort again. Then most the Squad will have 2 weeks to refresh and we'll get get our pack back (bar Dudson) for Wakefield. Can't see all 8 of our guys playing for England but 3-4 maybe.
Be interesting to see if we sign someone but i think we're waiting for Taginoa. Unless we sign a short term signing for the rest of the year. Could be wrong though and we might sign a long term prop.

Taginoa is a second row forward.

Would still be good for us, we could play currie or Nicholson at 13 and free up philbin or mcguire for a prop role. Gives us more options anyway. I think we are a bit light in the back row. We have 2 quality players to start in 2nd row but we are shuffling after them really.

I thought our defence stood up well given the amount of field position that Wigan had. The problem in that game was a lack of yardage, not how well we defended. Should Saints have the same amount of ball within our 25, then yes, we'll struggle again.

Wigan had the field position where their kicks were far easily contested when landing, than ours were. In the preceding rounds, our pack made the yardage where we were then on the front foot challenging for the ball with a kick chase, rather than our opponents. I get your point that we just left some kicks to hit the ground against Wigan, which really should not happen.

this is very true.

also need to remember, that on the odd occasions we did get within wigans 30, we nearly scored.

regardless of the vid ref decisions, we broke wigan down and got over the line,

and thats despite it being one way traffic in the middle of the field.

My thoughts exactly. Have a feeling it'll be the same old sickening story.

Our intensity needs to be higher than last week, Wigan met our attack on the front foot while we waited for them to arrive at our line. We need to be better, we can o it as we have seen it in previous games. Fingers crossed for tonight

Saints go in to this in worse shape than we do, the concern for us will be our go forward and whether we can play with a little more intensity in defence. Both teams have enough creative players to make the chances when in good field position.

Looking at the squads purely on paper we should win, but the way we played the game vs Wigan gives me plenty of doubt.