Will Tomkins injury put a doubt over that?

Of course he is. Ford's got another 10 positions he wants to try him out in yet, on the basis that by the Law of Averages at some point it must work.

Cas is a great move for Rocky, makes perfect sense. His career is currently totally stagnating at Wigan. He is a very very talented HALF BACK, with top class potential.

At Cas he will be given the opportunity to have a run at half back and will be working with a coaching team who were previous halves and maybe can add something that Wigan can't.

Over the course of the year he will be in a position to win a halfback shirt at Wigan for the following year.

The club clearly recognize his ability and are terrified they could have another Sean Long style headache on their hands, ie he signs for one of our competitors and haunts us for years to come. Equally however they can't keep playing him out of position and delaying his career.

Sitting in the stands or running round getting the odd game here and there when we have an injury is no career for a lad that talented.

I'm personally made up given he is not going to get a chance as starting half next year that he is going somewhere he will be given an opportunity to kick start his career which has stalled a little through no fault of his own.

How will he get in the team in 2017 with Williams and Smith still around?

Also Carney is signing for Salford so there won't be a swap.

It’s just not an affordable use of cap space to bring a third winger in of his calibre, the only way you ever get three top wingers in a squad is if one has just burst through the academy (e.g Manfredi in 2014) then inevitably one of the three will leave and not be replaced externally (e.g Burgess). If we have cap space I’d be looking at a proper bench hooker and any good props but suspect we may be all set with what we have now.

If Charnley or Manfredi don’t perform then realistically I think we’ll still stick with them for the year unless they are absolutely terrible or get injured in which case we have Tierney who had a good game there v Salford away last year, Sarginson played well there for three games in 2014 and Gelling who played there quite a bit in 2012 (albeit I don’t rate him as a winger). There’s also Gildart who has the right attributes (not sure what he’s like under the high ball like).

Cas also have a set half back combination so he won't play at Cas barring injuries either.Id rather have him not playing at Wigan than not playing at Cas.

I'm worried that the Hampahire deal leaves us undercovered at 1.

Sam seems to have injury concerns so it's feasible that he won't play every game / make the start of the season.

Who then plays at one? The only other options are Tierney (I have my doubts) or Sarge but he's on the long term injury list as well.

To me this screams of the mistakes we made last year at centre. We let Goulding leave and Thornley had injury concerns.

Leaving us with Bateman (subsequently picked for England) and Gildart (won the position from the incumbent) at centre when both starters got injured. I don't see the issue, wouldn't have either back

If you'd have Thornley back or not is irrelevant - this time last year he was in the squad as we'd identified him in our plans for the seaaon. If he wasn't in our plans he wouldn't have been with us. We ran with a player down - that's a gamble which won't always pay off.

Bateman - a freak of a player. We are extremely lucky to have a guy who can cover both positions to an international standard. BTW we didn't know this 12 months ago as he was our 5/6th choice option. What's our 5/6th choice FB option?

Gildart - again extremely lucky that a kid who is 12/18 months off being ready (not my words, but those of Wane in the press) performed so well when called upon. Many youngsters have buckled in similar situations.

Now if you think the above is OK because what was essentially a gamblw paid off that's fine. For me it's very lucky that both worked out so well and I wouldn't risk it for such a pivotal position as FB.

The key question is - who plays FB in the first game of the season if Sam is injured or plays for a prolonged period if needed. The easy, straightforward and logical answer is Hampshire imo.

Williams at 6 looked the same big gamble at the start of the season, and now look at him!

Undoubtedly.

That being said there's another talented guy, who was rated higher than anyone else of his age group - Ryan Hampshire.

Maybe he needs a full 12 months, like Williams, to prove his worth. A gamble I'd like to take is replacing Smith with Rocky. Plenty of ifs but the upside is arguably the best club produced half back pairing we've ever had.