Fetlar-Absolutely mate but not every 32+ forward has JP's impact ,desire and more importantly quality.
I personally think IF we dont get our recruitment/junior intergration right in the pack asap then when the sad day does come and JP hangs up his boots we will be in a lot of the brown and smelly stuff or be chasing big money signings.

It's definitely a potential headache: the types of player we're talking about are a rare species anyway. Importing replacements from Down Under is increasingly difficult and U19 is very often too young to determine if a player will make the grade in the front row.

Hence our policy of retaining experienced front rowers well into their 30s, graduating existing second-rowers to the front row and occasional recruitment from the Championship...

I am certain neither Wigan or Leeds want this game this week.
Going into the play-offs we probably look the least prepared of all the top four teams . This because of injury to key players. Huddersfield look fresh, and the wire and Wigan have been resting players. One can live in hope but it looks like a bigger task than recent years.

I think we may well want this game more than most as we need to get our injured returnees up to speed and imperitive to get some momentum before the knock ou stage. Definately the task is harder than previous years because of the late return of so many injured.

Its the 2nd row that is the key area. Both 1st choice starters have missed a chunk of games (Delaney not so much as JJB). So do we stick with Ablett as 2nd row and start someone else at loose with possibly JJB on the bench for a match or two.

Obviously 2 of the main candidates for loose in that scenario are Bailey and Singleton, which opens up the more likely scenario of Kirke getting a bench spot, which will cause several on here to despair.

If JJB and Delaney are fit then I would start them. If fit they both only play one way....that is 100% which is what we need. They may both need a rest but I would want them on the field for they maximum time their lungs can take. They won't achieve any match fitness on the bench and best we get them up to speed before the knock out stages. I would have Achurch and Singleton as reserve props, Sutcliffe as reserve back row and half back and McShane to bring on when we want Burrow in more space.

Bailey didn't look good enough to displace Clarkson IMO. If Bailey were fully fit and had made a better showing on Friday then I would have him in the squad for his experience.

Against Wigan we can take a risk to get our best players in rhythm for the playoffs.

As I thought, Bailey has been called up to disciplinary tomorrow. They've tried to crack down on fighting so I expect a 1 match ban. It might not be vital we win at Wigan but its still disappointing if a lacking game-time member of our team misses out on match fitness before playoffs, whether you think he should be in the 17 or not.

this game on thursday will at least give our returning injured players some much needed game time
jjb and delaney should also be returning this week and they all need a good hit out

id also be tempted to rest jp for this game

Brought it on himself. More important JJB & Delaney come through and Sinfield finds a bit of form

Sadly Leuluai shows it is

The way things are playing out, I expect leeds to be soundly beaten by huddersfield in the first round of the playoffs.

Too many players lacking match sharpness. That's just match sharpness, let alone playoff sharpness.

They should be able to pull it together the week after where i then expect huddersfield to club call leeds as the lowest ranked team, to set up a rematch which I think leeds will edge sending them once again back to old trafford to face wigan or warrington.

If they play wigan they play a team they have never beaten in a major final. Warrington and it's intriguing rematch from 12 months prior.

Then again we could beat Wigan and beat Warrington and have a week off before the semis

1. Zak Hardaker
2. Ben Jones-Bishop
3. Kallum Watkins
4. Joel Moon
5. Ryan Hall
6. Danny McGuire
7. Rob Burrow
8. Kylie Leuluai
10. Jamie Peacock
11. Jamie Jones-Buchanan
12. Carl Ablett
13. Kevin Sinfield (c)
15. Brett Delaney
16. Ryan Bailey
17. Ian Kirke
18. Chris Clarkson
19. Mitch Achurch
23. Brad Singleton
26. Liam Sutcliffe