Clubb's lack of mobility worries me when he plays SR. He's much more effective playing down the middle, but our lack of SR options means he'll probably have to play there, unless he plays LF again. I think giving McIlorum a run at LF is a decent shout.

As apollosghost said, how we've got in to this situation where one SR out means we either have to play someone out of position or throw a youngster in is unbelievable. At the back end of 2011 we had Hoffman, Hansen, Hock and Farrell, with Joel Tomkins playing in the centres and Tuson in reserve, less than 3 years later we've got 1 out of 6 left.

We knew Hoffman was leaving, the Hock situation developed as it did but these and the sale of Joel are far enough back in time for the club to have a plan in place for the back row.

Part of that plan should have been retaining Hansen which I believe the club could have done quite easily. Would it have meant paying more than they first envisaged in wages? Probably but now perhaps people can see that if one of Bateman, Faz or Lockers are out we are stuffed and so trying to do it on the cheap doesn't work.

Perhaps they thought Clubb and Hopkins were good enough in the back row so they didn't need to. If so that was was an error of judgement.

You keep using this as stick to beat the club with DaveO, but you have no proof whatsoever that Hansen would have stayed.. Hearsay yes, proof, no.. Much as i wish he was still here, he would have had as much to say in where he played as anyone.

No need for proof there's the simple FACT that HH was under contract.

If the club wanted to keep him then they could have done so and HH couldn't have done anything about it.

No hearsay

So he wanted to stay?

Rather than saying that a specific player shouldn't have been allowed to go, I'm more critical of the fact that we haven't replaced the outgoing players with players of similar quality. Only Bateman for Tuson is an improvement IMO. The cynical part of me thinks Clubb's previous relationship with IL was the major factor in us signing him, rather than him being earmarked as Hansens potential replacement.

In fairness to Clubb and Lenagan he's looking an extremely good purchase at the moment but we won't see the best of him until he can settle in at prop on a fulltime basis. He's been brilliant when playing at prop but him having to fill in at second row comes back to us not recruiting correctly in that position in the off season.

IMO any player that leaves the club should be replaced. If you can't do it from within then you must go outside the club and find somebody and we haven't don't that with Harrison Hansen. We made a bit of a play for Larne Patrick which said they felt they were short but when that didn't come off they seem to have decided to run with what we've got. We're getting in to a position at the moment where I think they need to scour superleague and the NRL for a viable option.

You say that MM is a little out of left field, what I am about to suggest is out of the next field.
I would have Clubb at prop and move Taylor to the second row for this one match, drastic I know but Taylor seems to have that bit of bite that Clubb seems to lack in the second row and does have that Hock factor in the way he seems to be able to burst tackles.
The option is always there to change things, it is called flexibility.

I've been impressed with Clubb playing prop, I just don't think he was someone who was identified and brought in to fill a specific position. IIRC the Clubb signing was announced long before HH had left, so he was never intended to be a direct replacement anyways. Our off season recruitment has left us over-subscribed with props and severely short in the SR. I don't really understand what's happened with Hopkins, or why Rhodri Lloyd hasn't been recalled tbh.

What does it matter?

Wigan held all the cards on this one.

It was a pointless transfer from our pov

Both Pugsley and Lever are good enough to make their debuts. Lever had a strong game against Leeds academy last week but not sure if Pugsley is injured because his name wasn't on the team sheet.

Phil Kinsella has tweeted that Bowen, Hampshire and Tierney are all injured for Friday! If that's the case, I'd imagine Sarg will move to FB and we'll see something like:

Sarginson
Manfredi
Goulding
Gelling
Burgess

Looks like Friday is going to be a real test of our strength in depth in the forwards and backs!

I'd go with #1 Burgess, #2 Gelling , #3 Goulding, #4 Sarginson, #5 Manfredi.

Sarginson briefly played fullback in one game this season and has played there before. He's one of those players who could make an excellent fullback in theory but I haven't heard many positive things about the times he's played there.

I've always thought Burgess would make a decent fullback (he'll always be better on the wing though) so I wouldn't mind seeing how he does there.

Burgess would get his hands on the ball more at fullback and that's no bad thing IMO. Hopefully one of Bowen or Hampshire will pull through but if not I'd go-

Burgess
Manfredi
Goulding
Gelling
Sarginson
Green
Smith
Taylor
Williams
Clubb
Bateman
Hughes
McIlorum

Subs
Crosby
Pettybourne
Dudson
Powell

Even with all the injuries that's still a fine team and an exciting one.

Hansen would have stayed, except Wigan didn't make him a suitable offer. He was one of the first names on the team sheet, a regular, dependable, international player.
Sure, he has bad wrists, but he deserved more from the club.

Do you have evidence to support this? I was under the impression that he wanted to join Salford as he was raised in the area and his dad played for them.

That was part of the story to make it suit all parties, but I can assure you H did want to stay.

Sounds like another wonderful conspiracy theory then. We'll have to wait until H writes a book

Don't you think that just reads as incredibly implausible in professional sport? He spent the best part of 10 years at Wigan when secretly he always wanted to play for Salford?

He went for the money just like all the other signings at Salford have (even Morley).

There's no shame in that for him or Salford.

Market forces and all that . Salford paid him what they thought he was worth . Wigan would not match the offer or did not think he was worth that . Wigan were compensated by Salford . Fair play to H he has to look after the family and no shame to him in doing that . No sentiment in professional sport when there is a mortgage to be paid .

Regards EW

Clubb done his ligaments in out for a few weeks, Sutton with concussion so unavailable next week.

Clubb
Sutton
Lockers
Farrell
Bowen
Hampshire
Thornley
Pettybourne
Flower
Charnley

The injury list grows...

Previous reports were josh would be back for magic weekend but im more concerned about who we can have in the pack and still have subs to replace them, losing clubb and now sutton is a blow

From the interviews it sounded like farrell may be back next week and hopefully captain fantastic is back

Hopefully one or two of Pettybourne, Farrell and O'Loughlin will be back next week - we'll need them to be competitive.