Losing Gaskell to Wigan would be nothing short of a disaster. He was instrumental last season and although he had a wobbly patch early this season, (and lets face it how many Saints players were actually playing well at that time ?) he still has a lot to offer.

It could be that he will just need to bide his time till Brown arrives. And lets be realistic there are going to be injuries etc between now and the end of the season,so I am pretty sure he will get his chance again some time. And it would not surprise me if he did get his chance, that he would cement his name on the teamsheet.

You hit the nail on the head. We will make the playoffs easily just banging it up the middle and ignoring the backs altogether given how weak most of the league is and how strong our forwards are, and then we only need to win 3 games in which anything could happen. Rush might very well see no point in changing anything and maybe we'd be in a lot worse position if he did try and move people around and alter the pattern of play - maybe he just isn't capable of playing any other way. I don't rate Gaskell as the answer just yet, but clearly the time has come now with a lot of easy games to trudge through and a completely malfunctioning backline to at least give him a runout and see what happens, but this is clearly not going to happen.

Sure - that's provided we can keep Roby (who's body must be close to breaking point the amount of reliance we are placing on it) on the field. With a fully fit squad we can make the top four. But take two or three keys players out of that side for any lengthy period and we could be in very serious trouble.

If that is the case then I am worried about him moving back to looking after the kids, if this is how he treats them.

Read this morning League Express. Confirmed about Finch and about Gaskell but nothing about Brough but it is a done deal. It is hard for you guys to believe a Wiganer.

I heard similar at the weekend, apparently he does have his favourites, and they're not based on ability