I'd imagine 1-16 will be identical fitness/disciplinary apart, only question is Halsall as cover again or four forwards, I'd probably plump for the extra forward as being competitive with Saints pack is going to be crucial

Halsall was only picked because they was gonna take Field off anyway, I think Partington might get the nod ahead of Isa and Shorrocks.

I think Thornley will get a ban for the late hit (rightly or wrongly).

I was in favour of switching Bevan to fullback mid game before Friday but I think his lack of pre season really showed against Wire - he looked exhausted.

Field
French
Isa
Bibby
Marshall
Cust
Smith
Singleton
O'Neill
Ellis
Farrell
Bateman
Smithies

Mago
Byrne
Havard
Shorrocks

The thought of Isa playing is scary enough. The thought of him playing at centre Vs Saints us terrifying. Halsall is the better option on all fronts.

Well said spot on.

I’ve not seen the Thornley incident on replay but presuming he would be ok, I think the first 16 picks itself and it’s just a decision for the last bench spot. I think the sensible decision would be to put Shorrocks on there. It’ll be an intense game and Brad O’Neill might need a spell.

Losing Thornley would be a blow. He showed what he can do on Friday. He’s a big body and close to the line anybody is going to find him a handful. When the alternative is a youngster or putting a second rower there, it really impacts on the balance.

Would it be worth putting Thornley at left centre to cope with Hurrell? Bibby is still having nightmares about him.

Saints fans seem more worried about you their own squad. Don’t seem to cope that well with a couple of injuries. I make Wigan favourites for this one!

I can see the logic, but not for me. If we're seeing Bibby as a potentially long term option, we can't be taking him out of the firing line in big games in my view. He should be looking at the semi-final as the opportunity to right a few wrongs from the last time we played them.

I wouldn't go that far, but missing Lomax (along with Dodd) definitely puts a different complexion on things.

I'd still make them favourites. We'll be missing our first choice 7 and 9 too, so it's not as though they're the only team which won't be near full strength.

I think the Lomax injury and potential Percival ban has massively changed the landscape.

I’m nowhere near as confident as I was and feel that Wigan could edge a close one this time. I know that they are missing 3 starters too but you could argue that Smith has improved them in attack and his goal kicking is worth it’s weight in gold.

Defensively he is weaker of course. We still have the pack to win but no halves changes the way we will play no doubt and I can imagine we’ll play a simple game plan, look to complete well and let the forwards win the game.

We won’t have a FB if Welsby plays 6 so that may mean Makinson playing there. It’s a lot of disruption at a crucial stage of the season so we may well get found out on Saturday.

I think Powell is the bigger loss. I've liked the look of O'Neill in the minutes that he's played, but there have been one or two occasions where his defence has been exposed in such a key position and the game on Saturday is only going to be more intense.

The loss of the two halves for Saints (and possibly Percival) is obviously massive for them and evens out the contest a bit, but if anything it incentivises them even more to make the most of their pack to overpower us down the middle, and really testing how well the likes of O'Neill and others can stand up to that sort of challenge.

If Saints complete their sets well I still think we might struggle to deal with the physicality of their pack, but I'd give us a decent chance with their issues at half back.

I definitely think losing Leuluai and Powell hurts our defensive organisation - despite the win on Friday our line had more holes in it than Swiss cheese. A better attacking side than Warrington would have scored more points. Plus as individuals Leuluai and Powell are two of the strongest defenders in the league.

Both superb defenders.

I have to admit that I like the thought of Sironen or Matautia running at Smith however on Friday it was noticeable how our attack dropped when Lomax went off. We looked devoid of ideas and given we may have someone playing FB on Saturday for the first time this season then our spine is completely different.

It may well be that Wigan don’t need to worry about defending as much as they think.

It’s tough to say what Saints struggles on Friday were down to. Was it the players having an eye on this weekend? It was it the disruption caused by the loss of Lomax? I’d suggest it was a mixture of both. That mean this weekend will be extremely intense from you guys, as usual against us but it might not be pretty. We had the conversation on here a few weeks back about how both sides could cope with injury disruption and in particular injury disruption in the spine positions. That test could well be upon us if Lomax is out. They might not be Leuluai and Powell, especially in defence, but to have a natural 7 and 9 to throw in has been very useful for us. In attack I’m not sure we’ve lost anything and we might actually be better off but it’s defensively that the worries creep in.

Saints still big big favourites for my money but I’m not totally ruling us out (I was before Friday).

I've never posted on there but I do read RedVee so I'm well aware not a single Wigan player would make the Saints squad let alone a place in their starting 13 so them possibly missing a couple of players won't make the slightest difference to the result unfortunately

I think this part of your post nails it. That’s my point. I think you’ve ended up making a bad situation actually better than it was before.

In terms of Friday it’s hard to say why we were off. Salford slowed the ruck down massively, Kendall absolutely hammered us with pens and 6 agains and I do agree that the players may well have had an eye on this week.

Whenever we have a week off we always struggle and it was the case this time. Walmsley and Knowles had their worst games of the season (bar that try saver from Knowles in the last minute)

Matautia was gassed too although he’ll come on from that performance and another weeks training.

Of the two teams Wigan look fresher now which seems daft after our week off and are certainly the more in form of the two.

I know that this is tongue in cheek somewhat but I think if you talk to any reasonable Saints fan you’ll know that this is not the case.

When did RedVee and reasonable ever come together in the same sentence

The problem we have though is that if it does improve us, it’s only in attack. We’ve lost probably the best defensive 7 and 9 in the comp and I know as fans we love to concentrate on attack but there’s two try lines to think about and it’ll hurt us pretty badly. Saints minus all their pivots would still be a tough nut to crack defensively, so we won’t be walking in try’s like Friday and if we don’t pick up defensively, a lack of halfbacks for Saints won’t matter as that Saints middle unit will have a field day.

I’m looking forward to it anyway. It felt a forgone conclusion at one point but possibly not now.

I fancy going To this one as a neutral. Do you think there’s much chance of me paying on the gate, as I need a few stars to align…….
Plus I just prefer doing this to any game…!

It's the first time in a good number of years that Saints look like they will have been impacted by injuries in key areas which already seems to be causing some of their supporters discomfort with the our semi final coming up (even though we have also lost a half back, hooker and centre).

There's been times where we have been decimated with injuries 7, 8, 9+ players out we've had to crack on. We have lost players to the NRL year on year disrupting our rhythm, in effect almost starting again at times.

Yet... Saints have largely got away with it for years (luckily for them and fair play to their conditioning team btw).

But this... "we are doomed" comments I've seen on social media, (not necessarily on here I may add) is laughable when you think it's just two injuries and a 'potential' ban.

At the end of the day Saints are still firm favourites and are the team likely to win to the final. All the injuries have done is slightly reduced their chances (we have a 1 in 10 game chance of beating them prior to the injuries which has probably reduced to 1 in 7 chance).

They are the favourites, the pressures on them.

[*

To be fair if Grace and Hopoate don’t make it then it’s 4 injuries and a potential ban.

Also it’s the positions and quality of the injuries. It may well be that the two England halves are injured. I’d liken it to VVD and Konoate or Salah and Mane both being injured at the same time

Whilst 2 isn’t a big number it’s the nature of the pivotal positions and quality that will hurt us.

To lose both halves would be awful luck to be fair to them. It was always the area you felt they could struggle in with an injury or two as they don’t have a natural back up (certainly not anything older than an out and out junior or a utility back up). It’ll bring them back closer to the pack if Lomax is ruled out for any length of time. They’ll still be extremely tough to stop because their defence is outstanding and their pack is the best in the comp but it does open up chances to get at them due to the switches they’ll have to make.

Just reading the list of potential bans on Serious about rugby league and they list Cade Cust. I didn’t notice it at the game but I watched the replay last night and I presume they’re referring to a challenge he made, where he lifted a Wire player (Thewliss I think it may have been) and slammed him to the floor. He had him a pretty safe position, so he could be ok but you just never know. The Thornley one I’ve seen mentioned was a bad read, rather than a late challenge as such. That would be a harsh ban but again, you just never know.