FB 1 Sam
RW 2 Charnley
RC 3 Goulding
LC 22 Gelling
LW 5 Richards
SO 32 Hampshire
SH 7 Smith
P 21 Taylor
H 9 McIlorum
P 10 Mossop
SR 11 Hansen
SR 16 Tuson
LF 13 O'Loughlin

S 6 Green
S 12 Farrell
S 15 Flower
S 26 Crosby

A bit out there I know and it won't happen but that's the closest to a form team I can think of.

Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Thornley
Richards
Green
Smith
Flower
Mcilorum
Mossop
Hansen
Farrell
O'Loughlin

Crosby
Taylor
Dudson
Tuson

Sam Tomkins
Josh Charnley
Darrell Goulding
Iain Thornley
Pat Richards
Blake Green
Matty Smith
Scott Taylor
Michael McIlorum
Ben Flower
Harrison Hansen
Liam Farrell
Sean O'Loughlin

Dom Crosby
Lee Mossop
Chris Tuson
Ryan Hampshire

Tomkins S
Charnley
Goulding
Gelling
Richards
Green
Smith
Crosby
Mcilorum
Flower
Hansen
Farrell
O'Loughlin

Mossop
Taylor
Tuson
Tomkins L / Hampshire (can't decide)

3 props on the bench? Why?

The team I imagine...

Tomkins
Charnley Goulding Thornley Richards
Green Smith
Flower McM Mossop
Hansen Faz
Lockers
----------------------------
Logan, Taylor, Dudson, Tuson

Going off the last few weeks performance.
Logan Tomkins, Dudson and Thornley should miss out.

That would mean Gelling at centre, Poell on the bench and either Lauaki or Crosby as the fourth prop.

Umm...Gelling's decision making must surely cost him a place. Thornley is like the rugby league equivalent of beige but playing Gelling in a final is going to give people a heart attack. He just doesn't know when to stick and when to twist. He's very unlikely to win us a game but definitely has the potential to cost us.

Neither Dudson nor Lauaki have earned a place. Both have been poor although in fairness to both of them they've had injury troubles which will have caused fitness issues I'm sure. Crosby should be 4th choice but worryingly he's fallen out of favour and seems unlikely to play. His form dipped a little but he's had a decent rest but the crucial difference his defence is better than both Lauaki and Dudson.

Powell has a similar problem to Crosby, he seems to have dropped out of favour and hasn't played hooker for a while and it seems unlikely that Wane will put him back in for the final having stuck with Tomkins.

Gelling scores plenty tries and makes nearly 100m a game. Plus he's the better defender of the two. I'm not saying he will win us the game, but I'd rather have a player out there who makes a couple of handling errors, but also takes pressure off the forwards, scores when put in space, and is solid in defence, than one who is fairly anonymous in attack and suspect in defence. That sums it up for me, Gelling drops a couple but at least he gets involved and does a lot of positive things too.

Gelling won us the game against Hull KR with a try i dont think Thornley would have scored. He has more chance of winning us the game than Thornley does but i agree that he does have more chance of losing us the game. For me Gelling should play, i think he deserves it.

hey, its my money and my choice. If Wane in one of his last games at Wigan cant see that Dudson doesn't even look like a Wigan player, then thats up to him, same as its up to me to go or not.

Gelling averages around 11 more metres per game than Thornley. It's not a massive difference; it's the equivalent of about 2 carries (and Gelling averages 2 more carries per game than Thornley).

Gelling scores more than Thornley (0.8 tries per game compared to 0.6) but that is surely offset by the fact that Thornley is 5 times as likely to make a try assist. Thornley averages a try assist every other game whereas Gelling averages a try assists every 9 games.

Gelling is twice as likely to make an offload and more likely to break a tackle but Thornley averages over twice as many clean breaks. Gelling is nearly 3 times more likely to make an error, 3 times more likely to concede a penalty while they both average around 1 missed tackle per game.

There's not a vast difference between them except for when it comes to try assists, errors, penalties and clean breaks.

Gelling's couple of dropped passes and picked up by Lineham or Shaul and they'll go 80 mtrs to score. With Tickle as their kicker that's 12 points we can't afford to risk!

I think Hampshire is perfect to take the traditional hooker bench spot for Wembley.

Mic needs more minutes, when he comes off Smith to 9, Hampshire in the halves or 1 with Sam moving forward.

It's a big pitch with wide open spaces and his pace off the bench could cause Hull all sorts of problems.

1. Sam
2. Pat
3. Gelling
4. Golding
5. Josh
6. Green
7. Smith
8. Mossop
9. MM
10. Taylor
11. H
12. Faz
13. Locky

14. Crosby
15. Tuson
16. Flower
17. Hampshire

Because Logan doesn't deserve to be in the team on current form and McIlorum can easily play the full 80 anyway. Changing the half backs mid way through a game is generally more disruptive than anything so I think putting Hampshire or Powell on the bench could end up being a waste of a sub. Plus our forwards have been making hardly any yards lately so an extra one will help keep them a bit fresher.

Equally Thornley could be put in a scoring position twice and get tackled like usual whereas Gelling could score. That's 12 points we can't afford to risk!

Last night was a straight shoot out IMO for that centre spot at Wembley and both were dreadful. I'd probably mark Gelling 5/10 and Thornley 4/10 so on that basis Gelling just shades it.

Fair enough, I'd have thought our props ought to be fit enough to manage 2x20 minute spells. An extra prop would just dilute the quality IMO. Having Hampshire on the bench could not only offer a change of direction if things aren't going well, but it could also push Green and Smith to up their games so they don't get benched. Plus he's an unknown quantity who could be a gamebreaker if given a decent platform

I would have Hampshire on the bench and brought on when MM is replaced ,with Smith going to hooker and then when MM comes back Wane has to asses the situation.

If Hampshire is going well and causing Hull problems he must not be afraid to replace Smith, Green or even one of the centres to maintain the initiative.( I am pretty certain that Green has played centre on the odd occasion).
I know that this may mean one less forward sub but be brave.

He who dares wins.

I agree, 2 props and a backrower on the bench is plenty for forwards. I just get that feeling that Hampshire is going to have a breakthrough game soon where he really tears a team apart and makes a name for himself. Sadly I think he'll be in the stands with Jack Hughes in his place

Also to be fair Gelling was playing right centre which iirc he's only played once (maybe twice) in his career.

i think you have to put hampshire on the bench,sam looks way off the pace.think that knee injury is far worst than they are letting on.anyone know the injury update after sat match,do we have a clean bill of health?

If anything these last 3 games have shown nothing but neagtives for Waney and offered only negative help in his team selection for wembley. IMO the only 2 people who have etched their names on my teamsheet would be Liam Farrell and Scott Taylor. Granted Taylor made a couple of errors himself on Saturday but over the last 3 games hes been solid and had had more go forward than all the forwards put together so he gets my vote. Like i said there have been more negatives than positives unfortunatley these last 3 games and i feel that some fringe players have done themselves no favours and rather showed that they wont be able to handle the pressure of the big game.


1. Sam
2. Pat
3. Gelling
4. Goulding
5. Josh
6. Green
7. Smith
8. Mossop
9. MM
10. Taylor
11. H
12. Faz
13. Lockers

14. Crosby
15. Logan T
16. Flower
17. Burke


Ive included Crosby and Burke because quite simply the fringe players have been dreadful over the last few weeks and made countless errors, turning over possession etc.. and these 2 have been consistent in defence and attack when called upon in the big games this season, Crosbys M.O.M performance against St Helens and Burke's debut against Wire so they would get my vote.

Has Hampshire ever played 9 in his life? Bit of a risk playing him for the first time at 9 in the CC final.

its never going to happen but i would drop green and put hampshire in.green has been very poor since returning from injury.