Early stages of the season throw up shocks even when sides are at full strength.

They may be slightly more battle hardened than we are, but I do think if we get our attitude right then we should win the game but I don't envisage a runaway victory.

If they go with the same side that played in Chris Hill's testimonial then one centre-wing partnership has four SL games between them. The other side is Thornley and Tierney who are experienced but hardly superstars. They're capable of causing an upset if they have a very good day and we have a very bad day but I think you're seriously overrating the quality of this Leigh side. They aren't as good as when they were last in SL. With the injuries I'll downgrade my prediction of Wigan by 30 to Wigan by 12.

we will see, they have people out of quarantine now and injuries back, I dont think Leigh are worse than HKR or Wakey to be fair and they give us hard games

At Leigh.
Their first SL match in a couple of years.
Home supporters allowed in.
No away fans.
Their Cup Final.
They always perform well against us, especially away.
Wigan missing a number of first teamers.
Most of our team not played a friendly, going in cold.

Will I be shocked if we get pumped? Absolutely not.

Behind closed doors at Headingley isn't it?

Just look at the pack even before they get injuries:

Flower - Had a good career with us but wasn't always making the 17 last year. Good signing for them nonetheless.
Hood - Championship journeyman, out of his depth
Ioane - Again just a bog standard Championship player. Did nothing of note for London when they were in SL then they got rid.
Hellewell - As above. Two of their best forwards are from the team that got London relegated.
Thompson - Has plenty SL experience but he never really did anything of note. Made the natural move to the Championship after opportunities dried up in SL. Like Flower he's a good guy to have in the side but not as one of your best players.
Bell - Unknown quantity (or to me he is anyway) as he's still very new to first team rugby.

Wakey - Fifita, Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Tanginoa, Westerman
Hull KR - Vete, Parcell, Sims, Takairangi, Linnett, Hadley

Flower walks into those teams. Thompson maybe pinches a bench spot. The rest of that Leigh pack would be sat in the stands even at Wakey or KR unless they had injuries. I feel bad for Leigh because they had inadequate time to prepare for SL. I don't want them to do badly but I'm struggling to see how they're on a par with Wakey or KR. I think people are getting mistakenly thinking we're up against the same Leigh that last got relegated from SL. That side had Hock, Higham, Patterson, Stewart, Hansen and Tickle in the pack and still only managed 5 wins. I'm not saying this time they will finish on 0 points but it's a possibility IMO.

I think you might be thinking about the game in May which could be the first one where fans come back. Friday's game is at Headingley.

Meh!

So it is......

Had the jab yesterday, can I blame Astra Zenica?

I expected Leigh to be far busier in their recruitment but financially it can’t be easy and the lack of time adds a further barrier. They’re also recruiting in a time when overseas players probably look at the situation with Covid over here and think they’ll continue playing Queensland Cup or scraping the odd game in the NRL whilst living a reasonable style of day to day life in the Sun (well apart from around Sydney these last few days).

Their squad is decent. I’d say it’s better than the one London put together in 2019 and if they get a similar spirit going then they could stay up but it’s certainly not at the level of the squads at Wakey or HKR as you point out.

Without a shadow of a doubt & that team beat us early on in 2019

No way is this going to be an easy game.

For us I think we need to ensure our defence in the early rounds is at the level of the end of last season. If it is then we’ll be able to grind some results out and hang in there until the attacking players start coming back in. If we let that defensive attitude slip though we could be in for a tough few weeks. It was only a friendly but the Salford game showed the challenge we’ll face in attack with second rowers at centre, potentially kids on the wing and Hardaker at fullback, who with all due respect just doesn’t have the pace for the position anymore IMO.

Remember about 3/4 weeks ago and certain posters talking about leaving half the team out as we should beat Leigh easy etc. ?
It was a ridiculous statement then, and anyone who takes any team lightly deserves what they get
Well need to be as good as we can be Friday, as we will most weeks.

News from the coaches press conference today - Hastings and Gildart classed as doubtful but Field looks set to play. Bevan not in the country - back in the next couple of days.

Field is probably the one who helps us the most regards balancing the side. I’d go with him at fullback and put Hardaker in to the centre. If Hastings isn’t ready then Harry Smith to start.

As a Leigh fan, I can't really argue with that, we've signed Nathan Peats today, but it's still a side (apart from 3 players) that were signed to play for us in the championship. I think our backs are of a slightly better standard than our pack, but only just.

Only Manfredi is a winger, Gildart and Field are not. Hanley and Halsall are not wingers either. It is not one of those things it is pp planning.

Think you’ve nailed this team mate, although expect Clubb and Byrne to be above Clark is the pegging order despite a good showing against Salford.

I'd have to look back but pretty sure I suggested giving Kilner and one of the backs a go on the basis that I expected them to be needed later in the season so would rather them get experience against Leigh than being thrown in the deep end when injuries force it. Otherwise you can end up with a situation like we had with Jack Murphy in the 2012 SL semi final against Leeds. Obviously at the time I only thought we would be missing Marshall. Now I'd go as full strength as we are able. IMO we would have won the Grand Finals in 2011 and 2012 if we hadn't fielded our best available team every week.

Hardaker will play at fullback. So if Field plays, perhaps on the wing or maybe on the bench?

Hastings could do with another week to sharpen up Lam has said but he hasn’t ruled him out. Maybe he’d be an option for the bench to keep him up our sleeve if we need to chase the game.

I’d definitely start Field at fullback. We need some centres and we need some pace at fullback, so it covers both bases by moving Hardaker back to his centre spot.

That's very selective to say the least & smacks of short term thinking.

We have four wing options at the club in Marshall, Manfredi, Bibby and Hanley. After that you can slot French/Field/Zak in there. That's six players to cover two spots in the side.

Any club would struggle with 4 of those 6 options not being available + other backline injuries too.

Let's not forget that this time last year we ran with Hank and Escare in the squad and the club got chastised for having too much quantity Vs quality. Neither of them really played and it didn't help anyone. In a month or so we'll be back in that situation and leaving players out.

Hanley and Halsall are both wing options. That's no different to any other year when we have used Goulding, Tierney, Gelling, Murphy, Thornley etc on the wings. The others aren't wingers but they hurt our wing options when they are out as they allow us to move French or Hardaker there (or Field if he can deputise there).

We have a salary cap to work to, any team in the league would be struggling with this amount of first choice players potentially unavailable. If we went for a winger then we presumably would have needed to free up cap space earlier than when G.Burgess went. That probably means one of French/Hastings/Leuluai not staying on. So we lose a quality starter and gain the calibre of winger who would be happy to sign on knowing he needs a starter and Bibby both to get injured before he even gets a game. Probably not someone much better than Hanley or Halsall. They can be criticised for not recalling Hankinson but that's about it IMO. They had no way of knowing all these backs would be out.

I agree but Zak has confirmed that he'll be at #1. Ultimately means we'll have two backrowers in the centre positions.

So what do you suggest they should have done bearing in mind that didn't KR say there was no cap space?