I have a theory.

I know from what Flannery said in the press that Potter demanded (his word) that his players put on weight. Putting on weight will put pressure on certain parts of the body. Potter also liked us to barge forward. That may be why we had a predominance of muscle injuries over the last two seasons. Simmons stated in the press when he first came over here that he left the conditioning side to the conditioner. The conditioner asked him what plan he wanted but he handed the job back to the conditioner. Simmons has speeded us up good style. Our injuries are now largely athletic ones: ankles, hamstrings, groins. The only upper body injuries have been direct results of tackles (Clough and Wheeler; Clough has a complication to his of course).

So my theory is that the type of injuries suffered are as a direct result of the style of play adopted by the coach AND the conditioning regime.

Good theory, eh?

Awesome theory

According to a poster on Redvee, the 19 man squad will be much different from the team playing tomorrow and the injury situation is worse than anticipated.

wello and wheeler will definately not be playing tomorrow

It's stupid that you have to name a squad for Easter Monday really. Simmons probably doesn't know who's ready to go yet. Judging by twitter, alot of the players are suffering badly at the moment.

I think you should be able to nominate a 25 or 27 man squad for both Easter games two days before your first Easter game (i.e Tuesday or Wednesday)

They should simplify it. On the morning of the game they should name their 17 at 9am, giving fans the choice of whether to bother travelling or not.

If I roll up to Widnes tomorrow and the team sheet is full of sparrow legged Wiganers I've never heard of I'll be mighty unimpressed.

Foster was tweeted that he was feeling really bad so I don't know whether that was just because it had been a tougher than normal match or whether he was coming down with something or what. But my gut instinct after what Simmons said in his post match was that we would basically be fielding an u20s side on Monday, things were that bad. That he then listed the 19 he did surprised me.

Another Redvee poster said he'd seen Wello on crutches, and Wello's tweet this morning indicated he was trying to resist chocolates today (when everyone else was going training!).

I don't think for one minute we will win the match tomorrow. I think it will be a case of damage limitation.

But they'll still be wearing Saints colours, so they still merit some support.

It could be a chance for some very youthful Saints players to show us what they are capable of based on one training session and I feel right sorry for Royce Simmons at the moment! I'll be going to Widnes to watch sparrow legged lads I've never heard of wearing the red vee and hoping they can work a miracle and beat the mighty Cas!

COYS!

Ladbrokes have a Cas win at 7/2 which seem good odds given the rumours about the available players. Or was that not what you ment?

Your all forgetting that Cas will be in exactly the same boat, and infact will have it tougher, as they will have a long tiring coach journey prior to the game and will be facing an hostile away crowd.

I personally expect Royce to rotate some of the forwards. For example i see no reason why the likes of Hale and Dixon and Ashurst cant form the starting backrow. Two of these three players will be fresh.
I would look to rotate the props heavily, so would start with Graham and LMS but have TP and Mcgennis on the bench.

The backs shouldnt really be that beaten up compared to the forwards, so they should be able to handle another 80 minute slot. Though i must say I suspect Jonny Lomax may get rotated at some point.


Overall i think the team could look something like the following

Makinson
Gardner
Shenton
Meli
Foster
Moore
Lomax
Graham
Roby
LMS
Hale
Ashurst
Dixon

bench: TP, Mcgennis, Wilkin, Armstrong

He might not even play Armstrong on the bench, preferring instead a forward to help ease the burden of the forwards battered bodies. Hence Soliola could be the fourth bench spot.
I think these monday games are as much about fatigue management as anything else.
You need some fresh guys to take the heavy burden while rotating the big guns as much as possible to limit their fatigue levels.

You're assuming, of course, that all of the above are actually going to play tomorrow!

You win. Millward has backed us to win and his prediciton record is awful!