Adrian Lam names the Wigan Warriors 21-man squad to face York City Knights
No changes in the 21 from the side that beat Wakefield last week
York City Knights v Wigan Warriors, Fri 9th April, LNER Community Stadium, K.O. 7:45pm
Adrian Lam has named the Wigan Warriors 21-man squad to face York City Knights this Friday at the LNER Community Stadium (K.O. 7:45pm).
The two sides will do battle in a bid to reach the Betfred Challenge Cup quarter finals, with the bout being broadcast for free via The Sportsman on their website, Youtube and Facebook page.

Team news
Adrian Lam has named an unchanged 21 from last week’s Betfred Super League encounter with Wakefield Trinity.

Earlier this week in his pre-match press conference, the Papua New Guinean provided an update on full back Bevan French, who has begun training with the squad after completing his isolation following his return flight from Australia.

“He’s back in training. It’s day one back on the field with us today. There’s no chance of him being involved at the weekend.

“He’s ok but he needs a couple more weeks to get up to speed with the rest of the squad and we need to be patient with him.”


York’s LNER Community Stadium will play host on Friday evening.
Injury news
Jai Field will be sidelined for five months following a hamstring tear sustained against Leigh Centurions in Round 1.

Dom Manfredi is unavailable as he recovers from a fractured thumb. Oliver Gildart misses out with a groin strain.

Liam Marshall continues his recovery from a knee injury sustained in September 2020 vs Castleford. The winger is expected to be in contention from May.

21-man squad to face York City Knights

3. Zak Hardaker
7. Thomas Leuluai
8. Brad Singleton
9. Sam Powell
10. Joe Bullock
11. Willie Isa
12. Liam Farrell
13. John Bateman
14. Oliver Partington
15. Morgan Smithies
17. Tony Clubb
19. Liam Byrne
20. Harry Smith
21. Ethan Havard
22. Jake Bibby
23. Mitch Clark
25. Joe Shorrocks
28. Sam Halsall
29. James McDonnell
30. Umyla Hanley
31. Jackson Hastings

Same again for me other than maybe rolling a couple of props around.

For me:

FB 3 Hardaker
RW 28 Halsall
RC 11 Isa
LC 22 Bibby
LW 20 Hanley
SO 20 Smith
SH 31 Hastings
P 19 Byrne
H 9 Powell
P 21 Havard
SR 13 Bateman
SR 12 Farrell
LF 15 Smithies

S 7 Leuluai
S 17 Clubb
S 23 Clark
S 25 Shorrocks

Rotate the props, give an opportunity to Halsall to compete with Hanley for that wing spot. Start to have a look at whether Smith is going to be ready to step up to being a starter next year. Spell Powell with Leuluai to give them both an easier week. Powell has been playing 80 mins making a ton of tackles, Leuluai is getting older and it worries me how many head knocks he has had.

Is this being shown online anywhere?

19:45 KO – York City Knights v Wigan Warriors – Live on The Sportsman website, YouTube & Facebook

(free)

Makes sense to roll full strength IMO given we only had 1 pre season game. York are no mugs and though we should still win with a weaker team this all but ensures safe passage into the next round

Quite a few ex-SL players in their squad - some I hadn't even realised were at York!

Ryan Atkins
Kieran Dixon
Adam Cuthbertson
Ben Jones-Bishop
Danny Washbrook

They'll be looking to do a number on us.

Anyone else see BJB getting into the clear and being chased down by a second rower v Sheffield in the cup? I bet he got some stick over that afterwards

They just got pumped at home v Toulouse as well. If they can keep us under 40 they will be happy. Not sure what approach Lam will take, but personally I think it's less risky to give some of these fringe players a game now, rather than throw them straight into the deep end against a good team when injuries/COVID force our hand.

If we are worried about any of the above players then were in serious trouble. If we play with some intensity for 20/25 minutes game will be as good as over.

They’re missing quite a few players York as well (Danny Kirmond, Chris Clarkson, Jordan Baldwinson and Kris Brinning are four with superleague experience), so anything less than a comfortable win will be poor really. I’m not expecting 60 or 70 points like you got in the cup games against championship clubs a few years ago but a good, solid 20-30 win shouldn’t be beyond us.

Cheers pal

Yea, Remember people saying we should rest players and give loads of kids a game against leigh as that would be easy as well?

Bit of an exaggeration, I wanted to give two kids (Hanley and Kilner) a run back when we thought everyone bar Marshall would be fit and available. I get that in the short term the least risky option is to always play your strongest side, but longer term that tends to lead to lads being thrown straight into the deep end against a good team when injuries strike (see Murphy v Leeds in the 2012 play offs which basically wrecked his career as an example). It also runs the risk of burning out your best players later in the season (which is why we didn't make the Grand Final in 2011 despite being the best team in the league IMO).

We only played for 20 minutes and still beat Leigh

That's never going to impress Jukesays. You're wrecking the system now!

I actually agree with both of you.

Play your best side and win the game.

HOWEVER in a comp that is about how you finish as opposed to a first past the post where every result matters, I also see the advantage in resting players where you can (see Lockers for about 4 seasons) and giving other players experience they may need at a later date to ensure you have your best side available when it counts.

We have to win the game, the fact it’s knockout makes it the biggest game we’ll play so far this season and other than rotating two props I’d stick with the strongest side. They’re not a bad side by any stretch and whilst a defeat is unlikely, it’s not unthinkable if we turn up with a rotten attitude and a team with numerous changes. The games a great opportunity for young Hanley to build some confidence and I’d probably look at playing Clubb and Clark in place of Byrne and Bullock and tell them they have to absolutely smash the door down if they want to keep a place in the next league game.

I’d go-

Hardaker
Bibby Isa Farrell Hanley
Hastings Leuluai
Singleton Powell Havard
Bateman Smithies Partington

Subs
Clark Clubb Shorrocks Smith

Sick of hearing the Jack Murphy argument

He had a decent game, he dropped a ball, yeah it was crucial but it was also very difficult that half the FB's in the league wouldn't have got anywhere near and that's before the argument that Brett F*** Finch (It still rankles 9 years later) couldn't put a ball in touch on the last with a minute or so to go and kill the game!!!

Anyway - Back on the Murphy topic, there is also an alternative than to blame him being thrown in and that costing us the game and it ruining his career & continually using this argument over and over again, it's quite possible that he just wasn't good enough?

Anyway - Your not impressing me, Conroy isn't impressing me and I'm disappointed in the responses within our Clique!!!
Not good enough - Must Try Harder

9/10 opportunities will arise naturally through Suspensions, injuries

And whilst agreeing with the other side of the argument you don't do it in the first game, you don't do it in knock out games especially when you already have 4/5 injuries anyway
I'm all for giving blokes a week here and there when they have niggles mid season (League table dependant etc.) when you've built the platform for the season.

That's the tough part. Managing it.

And of course in a cup game we go 100% regardless of the opposition.

exactly pal

whoa.....Egg Chasing is Conroy??

Cats out the bag now.

I’d go with the same as last week
We cannot afford to lose this one and playing Clubb and Clark for me increases that possibility on a grand scale

Clubb managed I think 15 minutes in the GF and totally ineffective. I would only play him in an emergency and possibly Leigh HKR and Wakey in the future. I still don’t know how he got a deal until 2022.

Clark blows out of his arris after his first tackle or run. Just don’t see anything good about him. Byrne is twice the player even on a bad day.

Bullock does need to improve and complete more minutes
You can set your watch on him. Guaranteed to play 15 minutes then off he goes.
I was really hoping that he would kick on this season but so far very very disappointing

Yeah I'm not necessarily saying he was solely to blame for the game, it's rare that one player is. I bet he would have done better, or at least bounced back, if he had more games under his belt beforehand though. When you look back at that season, we won 18 games by 20+ points and yet we pretty much never played anything except our strongest available 17. Every week that would have been the least risky option to win the game, right up until your best player gets injured and you're asking a youngster to deal with getting peppered by Kevin Sinfield in a play off. I know from near enough the horse's mouth that the club were very poor with how they dealt with Murphy after that as well, but hopefully the approach has changed.

Hopefully it won't happen, but I'd hate to be getting to a game later in the season and COVID/injuries strike and we're left wishing Smith/Kilner/Halsall had been ready to step up. There is also the question of how we expect Smith to start every week next year if we only ever give him the odd 15 minutes when the game is over as a contest. We are likely to lose some or all of French/Hastings/Leuluai, so we need to see whether he is going to be ready whilst there is still time to sign someone for next year if he isn't. The Championship is weak right now, and York aren't even one of the top 3 sides in it IMO. If we can't rotate against them and still get a win then we're in big trouble.

Don't forget the possibility that one of them actually takes their chance and improves the first team. Sam Tomkins and Liam Farrell are examples of players who we sat on for too long before giving them a crack IMO, sat behind Tim Smith, Phil Bailey and Mark Flanagan because we were fielding what we believed to be our strongest team every week.