I would also have back gardner to stop K Pryce for that try last week. He was never bothered by the volcano's superior physicality.

He did and he played well. However, his injury is someone else's gain. Foster got Man of the match against Wigan and shouldn't be dropped for that, Meli also had a very good game so shouldn't be dropped. Unfortunately for him he got injured, and someone else has come in and done a pretty good job and shouldn't be dropped.

He did, but he clearly wasn't MOM. He finished the sort of walk in try Ade trades in and took a good catch. He also got walked over for a try and fluffed a penalty to touch that could have cost us big time.

Gardner had a couple of good games before his injury and is our best bet on the wing IMO. Lets' not get carried away with Foster - he is a young, reserve winger whose shaky moments have outnumbered his good ones. Gardner is our first choice and his form immediately before injury justifies that.

Next time he has a shocker, by all means bring Foster in. But Gardner scored some tries before his injury that Foster wouldn't have managed IMO.

I agree, he shouldn't have been given MOM. He did play well though and doesn't deserve to be dropped from the side, and Gardner should be made to wait until Foster gives them a reason to drop him, but he's going to be played due to injuries. Apart from Salford, were he played centre, Foster has been pretty solid and hasn't done an awful lot wrong, that i can remember anyway. Foster has earned his place at the minute, IMO, and Gardner should be forced to fight for his place.

I disagree that Gardner is our first choice winger, i believe that Meli is better than Gardner. He was in good form before he got injured though so i know what you mean, but he got injured so he shouldn't just walk back in the side if the player that replaced him is playing well enough to keep him out of the team, which he is doing. Its all irrelevant though because Meli is inured so fortunately for Gardner he will come straight back into the side. Saying that, he probably would have anyway. Hopefully, he continues the good form he was in before his injury.

It won't be an issue as Meli is Injured. Gardner in for Meli and he switches sides with Foster - simples.

More than that. Much more than that. He took a match winning catch, under extreme pressure from hurtling Wigan defenders in a tight, mad paced game, at 19 years old, having never played in a first grade Wigan-Saints derby match before and having never played at the DW before. I wouldn't have been at all sure that Gardner could have taken that catch; it would have depended upon his mood.

And he fluffed a try. So what? How many of our players fluff tries? You can hardly hold that against him. He helped to save a try too by learning from his failed attempt to tackle Karl Pryce chest on and instead went for his legs, with Wello following up on the next player to get the ball. The fact that he learned his lesson under all that pressure in such a short space of time indicates to me why Potter gave him another chance.

I'm quite sure Foster won't be kicking penalties short again either.

And don't forget, Roby kicked out on the full. Mistakes are made even by our most talented and/or experienced players. I think it's whether our young guys take them in their stride, learn and improve that suggests whether they are going to make it as first team players of the future.

wellens
gardner
gidley
flannary
foster
pryce
moore
gragham
cunningham
puletua
clough
ashurst
dixon

roby
hargreaves
fozzard
dean

Apparently Foster is playing in the reserves tonight. Lomax's turn, I assume.

Foster isn't playing tonight as he's currently playing for the Reserves

Just mixing things up you think? I dont think there's much harm in making sure we ease young players into first team Rugby , especially those that look a little more fragile like Lomax and Foster.

What do you mean by 'fragile'?

Foster dropped a couple of clangers in the match against Wigan. I don't hold that against him - it was his first time as a first teamer in a Wigan/Saints derby (and what a match!) and his first time at the DW and he's only 19. However, Potter could be punishing him for the clangers or he could be giving him time out to work on the aspects of his game that caused the clangers or he could be playing Lomax and Foster off against each other (the competitive edge) or he could be simply allowing Lomax some game time as he has been out of it for a while. Either way, the only mistake I could make out from Lomax tonight was one missed tackle. I don't know whether it led to a try or not as I began to lose count of the tries scored by both teams! But other than that one mistake that I could see, Lomax had a very good match.

At this stage in their careers, it does no harm for standards to be high. Young guys will strive to achieve and impress. And it will do the team no harm at all to have two young talented players competing for positions in the first team.

By fragile I mean physically. Both Lomax and Foster are still a little on the light weight side and getting smashed every week so early in there development may not be good for them.

Was that a problem for Rocky Burrow at Leeds or what about Sam Tomkins?