Gareth, are you self-nicknaming again?

i hope i'm proved wrong but i think it's a big mistake not using thackery.
wakey were there for the taking, saints won't be. as i say, i hope smith proves me wrong but i'm not happy about it

Whilst thackray provides good go forward in short stints, he'll be a liability when it comes to playoff rugby.

His handling isn't reliable enough and he's prone to give away a few too many penalties.

Errors need to be at a minimum therefore i think it's a clever decision from tactician Tony Smith to drop him.

didn't do much wrong in the 2005 cup final

Mistake leaving Thackray out of the 18..........more to offer than either Ablett or Kirke in my opinion.

Given that Tony Smith has rather more information to base his team selection on.......

Can you remember the last 2 mins of the game?

In regards to Long and Fausavalu (SPELLING), i won't believe it till i see it. Saints are always upto mind games and wouldn't be surprised to see them both playing.

are you kidding?

They've been withdrawn from their 18 man squad, they can't IIRC.

IIRC teams may make one change to their named 18 man squad between now and kick-off. Seem to remember Saints not naming Wellens in the 18 or 20 for a game last year or the year before, but he recovered from injury quicker than expected and was on the team sheet.

Hull away. As you say, either last year or the year before.

In saying that, they were both in the original 18 man squad announced earlier today, but have since been withdrawn. Whether that changes anything with regards to the rules, I'm not sure.

Yes, but this is slightly different insofar as that they were initially named and THEN withdrawn. If my understanding is correct they will have to produce medical evidence of the injuries in order to replace them in the squad, so I think they'll struggle to put them back in again.