A break won't do Smith any harm, if French is back in the next week or two then him and Farrimond together for a couple of matches will be something to look forward to

True but I'm not sure he needed a month or more break which is presumably what he'll get.

Has anyone seen if he actually makes contact? Unless I've missed it, no one seems to be posting anything which suggests he didn't.

I dare say the club will be checking the camera angles, if they don't appeal then we can safely say Smith connected

It was deemed Hiku didn't make contact
From Fields lack of reaction and what I watched 10+ times I would just about agree

Only seen Smiths back once, looked like he made contact to me albeit I don't think there was much force

Don't think there's much of a defence unfortunately. I'd guess 4 games but hopefully we get lucky and he gets 3 and can make the Hull KR game.

5 wins out of 6 would likely get us in the top 2 as long as one of those wins is against Hull KR. Makes this weekend's game so crucial - looks like it will ultimately come down to a battle between an experienced playmaker in Mbye and a young talent in Farrimond.

No lineup out of what we have let is deal but on balance would probably go with Keighran and Farrimond in the halves.

I've only seen it during the match as chose not to watch it back for some reason

On the multiple replays on the day I didn't see any contact and you would normally get stills flooding social media if there had been and I haven't seen any.

I'm not going to complain too much, as I say. I thought Hiku did make contact, albeit minimal, and was worthy of a ban regardless of contact as the intent was clearly there. They don't punish intent though, so if Smith hasn't made contact I'd hope they would at least be consistent*

*I know... consistency and the disciplinary don't belong in the same sentence!

I'd give him three games for pure stupidity.

The two 21's should be interesting, should be a prize for whoever can name both 17's correctly

Not a criticism of Peet, mainly because this tactic has worked reasonably well, but if he (and Hill and Byrne to a lesser extent) are consistently asked to play 15 mins then thats what they will be able to play.

Bringing Mago on when the opposition are gassed or losing by a couple of tries, he can look really good. But if we are being matched then we just get a drop in intensity and the "rested" guys have got to come back and work even harder to get us back in the game.

The whole thing needs a tweek.

If Mago was capable of doing more than 15 minutes I just don’t see how Peet wouldn’t have got more minutes out of him.
The next few weeks will tell us how good players like Mago, Byrne, Walters and Hill really are. Byrne needs to do a job on Walmsley, Mago needs to be effective for longer minutes, Walters needs show that he really has great potential and Hill needs to lift his tempo. I’m hoping Forber plays as this will keep our ptb quicker and hopefully get us on the front foot more often than not.
I’m not a fan of “magic” weekend but I’m now looking forward to see how we react to current loss of form and enforced changes.

Forber is a must for me, his delivery from the ptb can be the difference in winning and losing.

Forber also provides the option to move Leeming into the halves if needed.

As I keep saying Itchy, he has. Several times last season and he went fine. That's why I don't understand the reluctance this season. He doesn't look any less fit.

*I'll try to find the relevant threads from last year if I get chance.

I believe you Phuzzy but Peet must have his reasons for not increasing his minutes and the same can be said for Byrne, Walters and Hill. My initial thoughts were that he doesn’t trust them but maybe they maybe carrying injuries which means that they aren’t able to train properly? I’m not sure what it is but I’m pretty sure that it isn’t that Peet doesn’t want to rotate his squad.

Actually Byrne is the better example. He was always regarded as a long minutes prop but now plays the same 15 minute cameos that Mago plays. It's quite strange. My own take on it is he just likes Thompson, Harvard and Ellis better but running them into the ground is short sighted to say the least.

I’d be a little disappointed if Peet’s lack of rotation is because he just wants to play his best 3 props at the maximum for every game. What would be the point in having so many props in the squad if he didn’t think at the beginning of the season that he would need to rely on a good depth of available props?
I haven’t got a clue what it is but Peet has more than enough credit in the bank to make mistakes and I for one can accept the mistakes as long as we learn from them. There is a bit of pressure now on Peet and I’m confident he will learn and pull through our current malaise. I can’t wait to see the 21 for Saturday particularly who is going to play 6.
I’ve always given Byrne maximum support even when he’s not always deserving. I really thought that he was going to kick on but he’s regressed this season and I suspect that he along with Walters is struggling with the tackle technique now required. I hope he’s selected for Saturday and Waney is in his ear on the need to stifle Walmsley when he comes on.

3 matches for Smith

Reduced from 6 because it was Bentley

There's so many different directions he could go in but based on what I've seen from Wellens' selections this year I'd take a stab at the following:

Robertson
Makinson
Davies
Blake
Ritson

Bell
Mbye

Lees
Burns
Walmsley
Sironen
Whitley
Paasi

Subs
Matautia
Batchelor
Stephens
Fuck knows, but thinking it will be Vaughan/Royle

Would like him to give roberts his debut instead so bell can play loose forward and I think the side would be overall a little more balanced that way, but it's a big big call to make against you lot at Magic so I'd be pretty surprised. Think he will go Bell for his defensive capabilities or at a push, Davies at half and Whitley/Vaughan at centre

What would your 17 be Stu based on what you have seen this season?

Difficult one really. I’d love to see Robertson at 6 but it would be a mismatch defending against Nsemba. I can see him putting Davies at 6 for his big boot in kicking and he’s a bigger body in defence. Mbye will have to play 7 but then he can’t spell Burns who looks like he’ll struggle with playing 80 mins. Bell can’t spell Burns as he’ll need to play 80 mins at 13 with no Knowles. We really are up against it

My guess would be

Robertson
Makinson
Blake
Whitley
Ritson
Davies
Mbye
Lees
Burns
Paasi
Sironen
Batchelor
Bell

Stephens
Matautia
Walmsley
Vaughan (or a back like Whitby or Roberts- can’t see them being thrown in though)

If thats the team he goes for, the back will probably be Bennison!

Looking at what has been posted for a potential Saints team, i think the packs will be relatively evenly matched, and its on the day who gets on top

From a Wigan perspective, and i know our attack hasnt been flowing but i'd look to get at the Saints backline as there are potential weaknesses there with the players missing. I know it looks like both sides are missing their starting halves, so its who can control the ball better of the 2 makeshift partnerships. Ideally if we can get Wardle / Eckersley (assuming Keighran into 6) i can see us getting a bit of joy v Blake / Ritson / Davies or Whitley

also in a strange way, with the numbers both sides are missing in key positions, it could turn out to be a very competitive game

Our potential 1, 6, 7, 9 options are:

Field
Keighran
Farrimond
Leeming

Eckersley
Field
Farrimond
Leeming

Field
Leeming
Farrimond
Forber

Option 3 is the only one that doesn't have Eckersley starting.

Impossible to call.

A bigger game for Saints, than ourselves. We could do with a win, but not season defining.

Our priority has to be playing well for the last few games of the regular season and build into the play offs with energy. We've seen over the last 12-18 months, few sides are better than us when we've got this.

It's interesting if you go back over our recent SL wins (2013, 2016, 2018 and 2023), we seem to hit our roughest patch in July and August of those seasons. It's almost as if the performance team know when to peak at the right time. The issue this year, we've had 3 peaks to do! 2 down, 1 to go in October. (Note: I am not saying we deliberately throw games in this period before anyone says!)