Not a chance We should move french from fb! Looked great last night there and that’s clearly his best position. Doesn’t have to organise and gets to pop up wherever and is way more of an attacking threat than zak.

Really not a fan of moving loads of players about to accommodate others.

I’d play tommy at 9, smith and Hastings in the halves and Shorrocks on the bench.

George Burgess surely won’t be playing so does clubb start with Partington or does bullock come in and have Byrne, smithies and Havard on the bench with Shorrocks to give tommy a rest?

Three forwards on the bench with Shorrocks giving tommy a rest is the way I’d go. Interesting to see what he does with the bench spots.

I don’t think he’s good enough. Not quick enough, not creative, if someone runs at him he will tackle them but his positional play in defence is poor, his goal kicking is sublime but that’s it. I just don’t see what he brings to the team, I’d rather play one of the Academy lads there to be honest.

He's strong for a centre and has a good offload due to his size IMO. Obviously I've not picked him but don't think he's a bad squad player whilst he's not really taking gametime off anyone. If someone pulled out injured during the warm up before a knockout game I'd feel much more confident throwing Hankinson in there than asking Halsall to debut or moving Isa there.

I’d rather play Isa there to be honest. I’d rather play Manfredi there too.

Nah, they will find it “inconclusive “ and give him a warning. Nothing to be worried about. Whichever player it was that ran in with raised forearm to the throat may have a little more to sweat on.

Nothing in that whatsoever, he was trying to fend him off

Nick Fozzard you mean?

It'll be interesting to see the reserve team that plays at Widnes tomorrow. That may give us some idea on who will play v Cas.
The Widnes v Wigan reserve game is live on Wigan t.v. kick off 2 p.m.

You going?

Well it was inconclusive. Yes his hands on his face but you can't see what if anythihg he actually does. Just looks like a bit of a facial to me that you see in most tackles.

Austin seemed to cry every time he was tackled last night. Playing on the wing has ruined him.

No, mate. We're going to watch our friend Carley Stenson with Jason Manford in Curtains at Liverpool Empire, it's been booked for months.

I hope to see them all play. Similar side to the Leigh friendly for me, bar obviously Burgess, Havard. Even more so if they’re due to play at Cas, give them a tune up.

Going off the website it looks like Clark and Bullock will both play

Did you see him rush over to George Burgess and rub his head after their try. Soft melt, whinged through the whole game.

Probably will do again next week as well.

I have never seen a player get away with being offside as much as Austin was onThurs. The ref and touch judge ignored it for most of the second half.

I have never seen a player get away with being offside as much as Austin was onThurs. The ref and touch judge ignored it for most of the second half.

Pay closer attention to Maggie Philbin when they play saints he was 2 yards offside all the time he was on the pitch

His crying and waving of arms after the alleged ‘gauge’ was quite embarrassing for a Rugby League player.

For the Cas game, I think it would be good to play Mitch Clarke. He’s done well in the last couple of games and he’s got a point to prove. So I’d put him in instead of George Burgess.

1 - French
2 - Marshall
3 - Hardaker
4 - Bibby
5 - Burgess
6 - Shorrocks
7 - Hastings
8 - Partington
9 - Leuluai
10 - Byrne
11 - Farrell
12 - Isa
13 - O’Loughlin

14 - Clarke
15 - Havard
16 - Smithies
17 - Clubb

Wouldn’t have Shorrocks and Clark in front of Bullock and Smith, unless Clubb is dropped for Clark

Shorrocks hasn’t done enough for me to warrant a place in the team. I’d keep leuluai at six and this might be a bit outside the box but I’d try Isa at hooker. He has a good engine on him and although we won’t see many scoots I think he could do an 80 min job.

Even though Shorrocks isn’t the worlds best defender, I think he’s a lot better than Smith and that’s one area I’d like to see Smith work on, his defence, otherwise someone’s going to run all over the top of Smith and that’ll ruin him. ITS Alright making comparisons with George Williams coming through, Williams was a very good tackler so could hold his own.

I do think Bullock has been better than Clarke but with the way he was treated last year by Powell, he will be motivated to have a good game. But if I’m honest, I’d probably rather play Kilner over both Clarke and Bullock, but I’d be inclined to swap him in the squad with Havard to avoid burnout.

You would hope that Clark would want to prove a point to cas, he could be used to unsettle their players.

Clubb is very much a Lam favourite but he needs to do far more if he wants a place IMO. He took 3 carries in for 15 metres and missed nearly as many tackles as he made. I like Clubb when he’s on form (he was excellent for a spell last year when we were down to the bare bones in the prop department) but with so much competition for places, he couldn’t have any qualms if he lost his place at Cas.

I would run with smith at 6, however i think they may start lockers in the halves and put smith on the bench, bringing him on the field after 25 - 30 minutes with lockers going for a rest. I then think lockers would return in the 2nd half to give tommy a rest for 15 minutes at 9.

This would allow smithies to start at 13.

I think the team will be:

French
Marshall
Zak
Bibby
Budgy
Lockers
Hastings
Partington
Tommy
Clubb
Isa
Faz
Smithies

Byrne
Clarke
Bullock
Smith

I would also spell havard for this game as he is young and put him back in for the Tornoto game the week after.

This would allow Clarke to have a bash against his former club who threw their toys out the pram when he turned down their offer of a 3 year deal to join Wigan.