Wellens (capt)
Gardner
Shenton
Wheeler
Meli
Pryce
Eastmond
Puletua
Roby
Graham
Soliola
Flannery
Wilkin

Bench

Moore
Clough
McCarthy-Scarsbrook
Ashurst

Your team, or the actual team? I'd get Soliola in there for Dixon.

Never. I'll wait for the 19 man squad to be named first. Why no Soliola?

I wonder if Lomax will be on the bench? I'm thinking that this match will only be the second outing for Kyle since his operations and he only spent 30 minutes on the pitch last time out. Surely he won't yet be ready to put in a full 80 against Wigan?

In spite of the temporary loss of our coach and the disruption that will possibly cause to training and preparation, I'm looking forward to the Magic match to see how we go in a competitive environment.

Wellens
Gardner
Shenton
Wheeler
Meli
Pryce
Eastmond
Graham
Roby
LMS
Soliola
Flannery
Wilkin

Moore
Clough
Puletua
Dixon

Am thinking Foster will play for his goal kicking abilities, Moore to cover Eastmond, Roby to play most of the match.

I don't think that's a good idea. He needs time to learn his own part properly after the messing about of last season. Surely it would be better to have Lomax, a halfback, covering for Eastmond?

When did Lomax last play at halfback for Saints.
Genuine question, and I don't mean in a friendly.

I'm trying to think of the U18 and U20 games v Wigan and I can't recall him playing in any of the halfback positions.

Moore will be on the bench anyway as interchange hooker so it makes sense.

We can't afford both Moore and Lomax on the bench against a pack like Wigan.

But he's not really very good there (and I'm not blaming him for that; he just needs to have time and space to develop his own position).


Can we afford to compromise on creativity and organisation at halfback given Wigan's defence? That was our downfall last season. It's a tricky one and unfortunate that our first game is against Wigan given the stage of Kyle's return. Maybe Kyle won't feature at all and Lomax will play instead, because it is Wigan? I don't know.

Back end of last season he played at halfback for about three games before a recurring injury took him off for three games (only for Potter to stupidly play him fresh from injury in the Grand Final). You won't have seen him in the u20s because when he wasn't playing first grade last season he was injured. Had he not been injured then he would have been a part of the first team for the whole season I should imagine, covering a variety of positions.

Am not expecting him to play there for large parts of the season, but to act as cover in the event that Eastmond doesn't last the match. In fact, the SH role would most likely be shared between Roby, Moore, Pryce and Wilkin, so its not exactly placing too much weight on Moore's shoulders. He did start as a SH after all.