Mr. Zucchini Head wrote:
The Hardaker ommission has given us a bit of a conundrum. I think we need Rapana at centre now, which means Moy at FB. I would probably go with the plan A being that Balmforth will play 80 minutes. But we need a contingency plan in case he is really struggling. Probably in the form of Lane going to hooker for 20 minutes. Far from ideal but I think we need to stack the bench with size and whilst I trust Hutchison it could be a waste if he isn't really needed in the end.
Moy
Barron
Rapana
Briscoe
Martin
Cust
Sezer
Ese'ese
Balmforth
Aydin
Lane
Chamberlain
Asiata
Sao
Fash
Ashworth
Salabio
I would say thats the likely starting team
Its a poor very lightweight second row so if Ashworth is OK start him for Aydin or if not Ligi Sao as Wigan will come at us hard like Catalan did and that extra go forward and weight from Ashworth or Sao will help.Then we can use the legs and fitness of Aydin when the game has settled down
Interesting to see how Salabio goes against a top team.
Just hope we dont try to use Sao in the second row again.Much more effective in the front row.
If we are going to play a front row out of position think its better to use Fash when interchanges are needed