1.Whiting
2.Calderwood
3.Turner
4.Yeaman
5.Briscoe
6.Horne
7.Tansey
8.Dowes
9.Houghton
10.Radford
11.Manu
12.Tickle
13.Fitzgibbon

14.Berrigan
15.Cusack
16.Moa
17.Lauaki

Poor defence IMO, I would love to see Whiting fullback Tansey 7 and Turner 3 but its not gunna happen Agar won't do it so Whiting is more solid than Turner.

same team for me aswell maybe washy for cusack not sure

Im not a fan of cusack, but id rather a prop be on the bench than Stand-off/Loose Forward.

My other option was Fitzy to prop and Washbrook to Loose Forward, but i think we need Fitzy on for the full game, where as if he plays at prop i dont think he will manage 80mins, with the same kind of impact from where he plays at Loose forward.

Turners defence is fine, he is a good solid tackler...I am a massive fan of Whiting however he does not have the pace Turner has, and if we are going to score on Thursday I believe it will be down to speed.

My team from the squad named, for what it's worth:
Obviously if there had been any chance of O'Meley being fit without knackering him for rest of season he's in at prop, Radford to bench Cusack drops out! I'd love to see Ogre flattening Newton et al...ah well maybe in the play-offs!


Whiting
Briscoe
Yeaman
Turner
Calderwood
Horne
Tansey
Dowes
Houghton
Radford
Tickle
Manu
Fitzgibbon

Bench:
Moa
Lauaki
Berrigan
Cusack

1 Whiting
2 Calderwood
3 Turner
4 Yeaman
5 T. Briscoe
6 Horne
7 Tansey

8 Dowes
9 Houghton
10 Radford
11 Tickle
12 Manu
13 Fitzgibbon

14 Hall
15 Burnett
16 Lauaki
17 Moa

no berro?

No, playing $hite.

yeh agree but for a game like this players like berro need to be in the team and burnett been very poor when hes played

That would be my team. Drop Berrigan for definate as he utter 5h1te. Time to get Tansey in the halfs too. We all know it wont happen though

Berro playing poor is still a better option....and who knows maybe just maybe he will fire.

exactly this is a big game and we need our big players to stand up hopefully can turn his form around and id start him from the off at hooker maybe install abit of confidence by starting a game rather then coming of bench, also gives houghton a chance to install some speed and impact after 20 mins after there big guys start to tire.

Well considering hes failed to fire all season and only looked good and never excellent over the the two prior seasons id say the law of averages would say that Berrigan will have yet another annonomous game.

He needs dropping and fast and told to find another club back inOz. He may not want too but if hes told hes no longer wanted then im sure hed find somewhere else to go even if it meant us paying part of his wages.

i agree he hasn played at his best this season,but he has had his huge personal problems to deal with,which have certainly affected him,aswell as his shoulder injury.as for thursday,cometh the hour,cometh the man

We don't even need to pay part of his wages. With the change is the exchange rate he could easily find a club willing to match or probably better our contract offer

He started the season very well and really helped guide us around the park and has definitely been excellent for us in the past, but people have short memories. While i agree with lots of the criticism of the team a lot of the things said about certain players is complete rubbish, a few poor games and then anything they've done is forgotten. He needs dropping as a wake up call, whether it will work for his current situation i don't know but something needs to happen to spark a return to form.

Form is temporary, class if permanent. If a player goes into a slump for whatever reason then something needs to be done to spark the player back if they don't look like they'll get out of it on their own.

Berrigan needs to be dropped and then actually played in the position he wants to play, not attempt to play mr fix it coming back from injury already in poor form. Especially considering our half backs take more stick then any other players. If one of our half backs has an average game and one of our centre's has a worst game the half back will take a lot of flak while the centre will usually go unnoticed or receive very little.

When we look idealess because of an injury to our 1 creative player, the people that fill them positions take all the flak for the bad performances when it isn't their game. The problem is we need more then the 1 creative player to guide the team around the park. Berrigan can do that if he can be returned to form and played at hooker. Playing him at 6 or 7 before hes even returned to form is not going to work. The whole problem is our 1 creative player being injured and their being no appropriate replacement.