Squad:

Gigot, Mead, Williame, Tierney, Langi, Smith, Casty, McIlorum, Moa, Edwards, Garcia, Simon, Jullien, Whitley, Goudemand, Maria, Baitieri, Samkins.

Trinity go with:

Arona, Arundel, Ashurst, Batchelor, Brough, Crowther, England, Fifita, Hampshire, Hirst, Horo, Johnstone, Jones-Bishop, King, Kopczak, Lyne, Miller, Tupou, Wood.

The eagle-eyed among you (i.e. not me) will note that there are but 18 names in that Dragons squad. Hoping to add Yaha in there once he's registered and all that.

Hoping for a win here...but with us you can never tell.

They need a result so we will need to score points whilst Brough is in the bin

Ha! It is inevitable

Well that was not good. Is it the away bogey again or do we have a real issue in trying to squeeze Tomkins, Gigot and Langi in the same side together? Too many chefs and not enough... err.. sous-chefs?

Start by getting rid of Fatty Smith. Stevie Wonder could see he was/is/always will be a useless lump of lard.

Aye, well, we all knew that. But Bernard's big book of players he liked a few years ago (see Webb, Brent) suggested otherwise.

At least they were good at one time. Smith has only ever looked good when he had a dominating team around him & it was peeing down to slow everyone to his level & his kicks skidded a long way. other than that there has never been anything in his locker.

Lots of problems.

Smith isnt good enough.

Gigot has to play 1 and Tomkins 6.

We missed Bird and Bousquet, forwards looked soft.

Edwards is better off the bench.

Garcia and Julien were fantastic at the back end of last year in the back row, surely they should keep those positions.

Mead injury is not good. Before he got injured I was thinking that he needed to be in the centre with yaha on the wing ASAP but who knows now.

Having said all that we have changed 3 out of the 4 spine positions with only Mickey Mac remaining in the same position from last year. I am willing to give them till round 6ish before coming to final conclusions.

What is Mead's injury

Don't like to see anybody go off like that, from the sidelines it was difficult to tell and I haven't seen the replay
From his position on the stretcher, it looked like a groin ??

Just back from holiday... did we smash them?

Adductor tendon in the thigh. 8-10 weeks

The first question is who will replace Mead.I would play bighead Gigot,who is nowhere near as good as he thinks, at centre,and bring Yaha in so that the backs are Tomkins Tierney Gigot Wiliame Yaha Smith or Albert and Langi.I agree that we desperately need the return of Bousquet and Bird and that Garcia and Julien should start with Edwards coming on later .

Disagree massively. When he is playing at full back, he is as good as he thinks he is.

I wouldn’t move Gigot to accommodate Langi, who was ok in the centres anyway. As for Smith, exactly as I remember from Saints - slow and anonymous. I honestly think Albert (who I don’t rate that much) would offer more