Farrell hurt his ankle at Leeds on Friday and will miss Hull and possibly the next Leeds fixture as well. Only Pettybourne is a chance of being back for Friday by all accounts.

A couple of tough weeks coming up I reckon but as long as these injuries clear up come the Cas cup game then that's all that matters.

Great! Yet we have extended Hopkins loan deal at Leigh, why?

Think we will struggle at hull, they will have a bollocking after letting a 16-0 lead slip with 25 mins to go vs Wakefield.

Strongest team?

Bowen
Manfredi
Goulding
Sarginson
Burgess
Green
Smith
Taylor
McIlorum
Crosby
Gelling
Bateman
Clubb

Powell
Dudson
Sutton
James

Bowen
Sarginson/Manfredi
Goulding
Gelling
Burgess
Green
Williams
Taylor
McIlorum
Crosby
Bateman
Hughes
Clubb

Smith
Sutton
Dudson
C Farrell

I wonder if Wane will be tempted to give Rhys Pugsley or Rob Lever a game on Friday?

Amazing how in just a couple of seasons, 2nd row has gone from our strongest position to a real problem area.

what about connor ? hes been in a couple of squads recently

Just what we need! I'd go:

FB 1 Bowen
RW 31 Manfredi
RC 3 Goulding
LC 5 Gelling
LW 32 Burgess
SO 6 Green
SH 7 Smith
P 8 Taylor
H 27 Williams
P 16 Dudson
SR 25 Bateman
SR 24 Clubb
LF 9 McIlorum

S 14 Hughes
S 17 Crosby
S 19 Powell
S 22 Pettybourne

I know McIlorum at LF is a little out of leftfield but he's switched there before during games and done fairly well IIRC, I toyed with the idea of moving Gelling into the back row but that would mean Sarginson at centre who just isn't up to it defensively atm. Connor Farrell would be another option but surely we would have played him v Bradford, Dewsbury or Hunslet if he was ready for this level

Decent suggestion that Grimmy. I don't mind McIlorum in the back row at all and Williams could do some real damage out of dummy half with a good enough spell afforded to him.

I'd go with the same team but bring Crosby in for Sutton.

I forgot about Crosby! Will edit now

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.