With Stains having the best squad in living memory surely missing Lomax for a couple of early months next season would not make that much difference.

Good to see you’ve moved on from our 4 in a row Jason. Calling us Stains as well, good effort.

On the Lomax withdrawal I can see it from both sides. He’s played all season with the injury so what’s an extra few games when this is likely to be his last WC and certainly the last one on home soil. Plus with the play off structure you can argue that we don’t even need him for the first few rounds anyway, doesn’t matter if we lost them all in the grand scheme of things.

However we all don’t know just how bad it is. For all we know he could be in real pain every week and his priority will be to prolong his club career as he probably only has 2-3 seasons left at best. It’s a short career as we all know and they don’t earn footballer wages.

Let’s face it too Saints will have a healthy contingent still so it’s not as though they are all resting. Welsby, Knowles, Makinson, Lees and Batchelor will all no doubt be selected. Walmsley too would’ve been. Percival has at least tried to play I believe but the latest scan has shown he’s had a setback and the specialist has said he can’t play.

Unfortunately at times thats hard work as you could probably attest to

i recall a game at Huddersfield when i spent best part of 80 mins arguing with Yorkshiremen complaining about Faz and Scully. Two of the finest players we have produced in recent years, and they werent fit to wear (poss GB shirt at the time) the shirt. There are some people just so short sighted its unreal, and you cant help get protective about your own club (or not) players at times

i've just posted something similar re Lomax on the Warriors fans board. I can see why he / the club has taken the decision. He has played on all season with injury, and has been / was probably advised he would need surgery to correct, and this may the the opportunity to get it fixed before next season.
On the flip side I could also understand if he wanted to play with it being a home world cup. But playing for England aint going to pay his bills if he makes the injury worse and career is over

in this instance i think its cos he plays for Saints that there is noise and he is going to be a miss in the England side

I'm sure if the injury could be made worse by playing (which I'm sure Saints said couldn't) then he shouldn't have carried on and risked his last 2/3 years of playing for 5months of rugby?
Can't take the player welfare moral high ground one way and not the other?
I'm not saying hes done the wrong thing, I'm just saying there's no need to try and put some moral justification to it when it is what it is.
Hes put his Saints career over his England one, and I'm fine with that
No right or wrong IMO

PS

STU M
you seem to be bothered about people using the Stains tag again
I haven't done too much perusing of Redvee but I'm sure when I have 10mins to spare and fancy a laugh I'll find loads of posts from yourself asking them not to use their, IMO, Far greater insults when using our name?

He's not made the squad anyway and neither has Smithies.

Happy for Wigan.

Looks like it'll be Tomkins-Williams-Sneyd - may be effective if we're lucky but it's a huge step up for Sneyd, Williams is out of form and Tomkins is unfit.

Most are saying Jack Welsby needs to play but if he does I think it needs to be at fullback. Welsby-Williams-Tomkins may be an option.

Welsby Williams Tomkins

Welsby has to play, 1 or 6 I'm not bothered

This is Tomkins last Hurrah, he doesn't have the legs to be in enough of the players from FB for me against the big teams in the big games.
That's why he may play 6

And he certainly eont play 6 games back to back.

Beat Samoa and we're topping the group so chance to make a few changes and rest Sam for the big games (pretty sure the QF will be an "easy" game if we top the group as well)

they'll put a cricket score on us

No kicking game or decent goal kicker but I agree it is what SW will probably go with and with Tomkins in the halves.

I only call you stains because some nobody keeps on call us Wigoon,is that ok.
Re-4 in a row as I have always stated from day one that whoever wins the GF is the best team that season your team are the best team this season,also is that ok.
If you take notice I usually reply to anyone calling my team for no reason unless it is a dislike of Wigan,also also is that ok.

SW managed to win trophies with us with no kicking game or goal kicker. I don’t think it bothers him that much.

The real weakness of this team is centre, percival playing would have solved so many issues but unfortunately was not to be.

Hasn't welsby played centre for saints on a number of occasions? Could be our best fit for him as our other options are very sc

Farnworth - obvious one of the 2 starting centres
Watkins - hasn't he played second row basically all this season and had somewhat of a career revival there?
KPP - not sure i trust him defensively at international level to play the centre position
Bateman - i suppose if we have to? We have plenty of second row options

I keep looking at the team and trying to decide who my 2nd centre would be, only position i am struggling to fill in the 13.and every time i can't see past welsby being the best option we have there.

Dosn't tomkins kick for catalan? Serviceable at least. Sneyd would play in my 13 though with welsby at centre.

Edit - we also have makinson to kick? Plenty of decent enough options

My main worry with the squad isn’t the lack of quality as such but more the lack of real figureheads we’ve lost since the last World Cup. We had S Burgess, Graham, Lockers and Roby for the rest of the players to look up to and that must give you a feeling of security and confidence. Man for man I think we might be as strong just about but that does worry me. Who can step up in to those roles?

On the plus side I see a number of players who I have confidence can make a name for themselves. Guys like Welsby, Farnworth, Young, Oledzki. Pearce-Paul, Batchelor and Knowles haven’t had a big series to establish themselves yet and I think they can all really take that step up and thrive.

They are both no where near good enough that’s why

Thanks to Lammy for coaching him well last season.

This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/

This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/

Quote ="Stu M"This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/'" I’m sorry but that’s bull. If Percival playing puts his career at risk what were St Helens doing getting him to play in the SF and GF. It’s one hell of a coincidence that Lomax’s injury reaches a point just after the GF that he can’t play on with it. This is one of the main reasons Rugby League as a sport struggles. Most other team sports, certainly ones in the UK are built on the international game. It’s about time some of our clubs started taking it seriously as if they don’t their own existence is at risk.

Quote ="Stu M"This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/'" I’m sorry but that’s bull. If Percival playing puts his career at risk what were St Helens doing getting him to play in the SF and GF. It’s one hell of a coincidence that Lomax’s injury reaches a point just after the GF that he can’t play on with it. This is one of the main reasons Rugby League as a sport struggles. Most other team sports, certainly ones in the UK are built on the international game. It’s about time some of our clubs started taking it seriously as if they don’t their own existence is at risk.

Not surprising really

So essentially the medical advice was they could play without undue risk up to September 24th but any longer and they'd start falling apart.

Quote ="TheWarringtonWolve69"They are both no where near good enough that’s why'" Smithies was better than Knowles in 2022. https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/87 ... n-smithies https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/13/morgan-knowles More metres, more tackles, less missed tackles and much better disciplined.

Quote ="TheWarringtonWolve69"They are both no where near good enough that’s why'" Smithies was better than Knowles in 2022. https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/87 ... n-smithies https://www.superleague.co.uk/player/13/morgan-knowles More metres, more tackles, less missed tackles and much better disciplined.

Quote ="Stu M"This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/'" Percival is not international class, Lomax is though. If you look at the players Wane has available he will need to work miracles. To me, it just confirms that SL is a poor competition with a splattering of ‘decent’ players. We need to cut the non-federation quota and introduce a system where SL teams are forced to promote junior players. The quality of English players has got to improve substantially.

Quote ="Stu M"This adds a bit more context to Lomax and Percival pulling out https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/230 ... world-cup/'" Percival is not international class, Lomax is though. If you look at the players Wane has available he will need to work miracles. To me, it just confirms that SL is a poor competition with a splattering of ‘decent’ players. We need to cut the non-federation quota and introduce a system where SL teams are forced to promote junior players. The quality of English players has got to improve substantially.

No, we really don't need to cut the quota.

We do if we are to succeed at international level.