Forgot he was playing

Wow, as well as that!

Its only his first hit out with his new club so no panic yet

At the moment it actually seams a simple task for royce as the players are making the choice for him. It would be trickier to fit everyone in if they all played well or were all appauling.



FB lance -Wellens is injured and as so will have to bid his time and earn his spot back



Gardner /Foster - These are the two weaker wingers so its up to one of them to grab a spot. If both turn out to be dodgy Royce also has the option of moving meli over and putting wheeler in that centre once shenton is better. Not to mention Ashe could offer up a wing option.



So at the moment two years for foster and an extention for gardner seams to have been a very good idea.



Makinson is clearly a first choice on the sheet so gets a wing spot.



Shenton when fit will move wheeler. but wheeler could move meli too.



Lomaskell to continue. If lomax is injured. Moved lance forwards and wellens to FB. ifGaskell is injured Wheeler gets his chance as he has a kicking game too.



Simples

Or back on planet Saints, we will pick up a handbag full of injuries, and will be digging through the under 20s to find anyone capable of pulling on a jersey!

That was part of the point though in the backs we have alot of depth. with four options for fb. five at half back before we need to resort to wilkin. five wingers before we start needing the likes of wheeler or gaskell to do a job there. our weakest position is probably centre. But thats the case across the league.



second rowers we have a plentiful supply of.



So there should be no issue getting a kicker in the halfbacks.



prop depth will depend on if la frank can do a job there. if megennis can do a role. other wise we look a little shalloow there with no big work horse like graham.

He was ill, according to Twitter.

After last night I'd probably go with a backline of this, when all fit:



6. Lance Hohaia

2. Ade Gardner

3. Michael Shenton

17. Gary Wheeler

21. Tommy Makinson



20. Lee Gaskell

7. Jonny Lomax





I now think Gaskell has to play after seeing the kicking game of Jonny and Lance. Lance looks a real attacking threat and should be included at Full Back whilst Jonny needs time to be allowed to progress. Makinson simply has to be in the team somewhere and for me he will slot in nicely on the wing at the moment. Wheeler showed some slight hints at what he can do yesterday, nearly broke through a couple of times and should eb given a chance to expand on that with some game time. I'd give the other centre spot to Shenton and Meli would miss out for me as I don't think he offers as much all round as the other two. Then its the Jamie / Ade debate and for me Ade is a far safer option, I don't think I can remember him making a glaring error in years. Makinson and Lomax can both kick goals so Jamie shouldn't be kept in on that point alone.

Gardner a safer option than Foster? In what aspect?



I'd bin Gardner myself, he isn't better than Foster in any aspect of his game, but is 30 rather than 20.



Gardner has survived this long because we've never had a youth player come through that's been good enough to oust him, in Foster, Makinson and Ashe we've now got 3.

I think Gardner is safer than Foster both in defence and under pressure from kicks. Foster is turning into Meli when it comes to dealing with kicks. However, Foster has youth on his side and time to learn, I suppose it depends on whether you want to be sure that a blunder won't be made or if you wan't Foster to try and learn from experience.

If you want to be sure that a blunder won't be made, I'm not sure Gardner is your man

Fair point, but I'd rather bet on him than Foster.