Yeah sorry I forgot

Rouges obviously I appreciate your knowledge on the youngsters so what in your opinion does Hanley lack at the moment? Strength, defence?

Im probably guilty of hoping that the lad is ready rather than him being ready. I thought that he could play a similar role to French and keep some consistency in our approach of using French as our main threat in broken play.

No SOL again.

Always tends to be at least a month before you see him again when those dodgy calves/hamstrings go.

Be a real tough game this after their hiding last week I think.

At the minute with the restart I'm just happy to get the result and see an improvement on last week. Similar to the start of the season.

I think the ideal time to be hitting our straps would be the end of September (the new end of August basically) but as I've said elsewhere I still fear that our pack just isn't up to it.

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... ow-2940958 I wonder if Jamie Peacock has any thoughts on this

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... ow-2940958 I wonder if Jamie Peacock has any thoughts on this

Wigan's 21-man squad: Zak Hardaker, Liam Marshall, Chris Hankinson, Joe Burgess, Bevan French, Sam Powell, Willie Isa, Liam Farrell, Joe Greenwood, Morgan Smithies, Joe Bullock, Liam Byrne, Dom Manfredi, Mitch Clark, Jake Bibby, Harry Smith, Jack Wells, Ethan Havard, Jackson Hastings, Amir Bourouh, Joe Shorrocks

Id go

French
Mandfredi
Hardaker
Bibby
Marshall
Smith
Hastings
Byrne
Powell
Bullock
Farrell
Greenwood
Isa

Smithies
Clark
Havard
Borough

I was sat pondering the team earlier and I did exactly the same and put Isa in the middle. He’s sort of ended up in the second row via necessity over these last few seasons but early doors for us he played centrally quite a bit and the Widnes fans always said it was where he was at his best. The only change I’d made to that team would be to put Greenwood in the right sided slot. If he wants a place he’ll have to try and find it there because you can’t move Farrell from that left side.

Get Jack Wells in for Smithies . Wells had a good game for Toronto pre lockdown scoring after breaking the line 20 metres out . I've not seen Smithies break any lines despite his raw enthusiasm. Wells won't give as many pens away either

Smithies had a shocker last week but that’s his first in the top grade and hopefully he’ll put it behind him this week. I certainly wouldn’t drop him but by the same token I’ve been a huge fan of Wells for a long time and I’ve been really disappointed to see him struggle to overcome injuries and force his way through. There’s time for him to do that yet and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him play and not Greenwood on Sunday.

Could Wells be effective at prop? In the current format this may be a route into the the starting 17
I hope he can kick in after his injuries
I’m not going to criticise Smithies but Wells May well be a better prospect as his all round game may be better
Hopefully both will be regular first teamers going forward

Wells has played as a 'middle' quite frequently. Technically it may have been as a loose forward but it's the same role. I'd love to see him get a chance now as he's had rotten luck with his foot injury. He's not on our retained list for next season and I can understand why, but I'd love to see him get a chance, put in some good performances and change peoples minds. Whether that's as a middle or playing in the second row (freeing Isa to play in the middle).

He's got the size, he's great at breaking through gaps in the defence, can offload and has a good work rate. I just think he needs the chance to prove himself in SL as he's been so unlucky, first with missing a year through injury and then having his loan at Toronto cut short.

Speaking of our loans to Toronto, I'm assuming Ben Kilner is still at the club. Another player hit by injury but he looked really promising in pre-season. If he goes through this year without any game time it's going to be a real shame.