Tough one this, though it's nice to have options.

Hohaia looks as though he'd give us a lot of danger and yardage returning kick offs which neither Wellens or Makinson (so far in his career anyway) can offer. It does indeed remain to be seen how safe he is there defensively and whether the pluses outweigh the minuses.

I [istill [/ithink Lomax might ultimately be our best fit at #1 longer term once Wello is out of the way as it seems the ideal position to maximise his strengths and minimise his weaknesses - I remain to be convinced fully that he's our nailed on #7 for the next decade anyway and I can see Gaskell and Wheeler becoming our eventual regular starting halves. A lot depends on how Hohaia goes and injuries anyway - in practice there's very unlikely to be too many fit senior players unable to make the starting 17 very often after all...

I'd take Makinson and Lance ahead of Wellens at full back. Wellens was too slow two years ago and hasn't gotten any quicker. It's been a constant source of discussion on the boards that the game has change so much that you can no longer go with a full back whose speed is a liability on kick returns. Yes, Wellens is an oustanding defender (when he's in position and not exposed like when Chris Dean outran him last year) but it's not enough anymore. His negatives now outweigh his positives. Whilst Wellens is the best full back I've seen play for us I cannot now rely on sentiment and neither should Saints if we harbour serious pretensions about winning a trophy this year.

The only other cert I have besides this is that Gaskell is now the second name on the sheet for me after Roby.

Its an interesting one -
While some might say you'd be daft to move him from 7 after his season last year, that doesn't mean he couldn't acheive just as much from full back. If we could create space for him as wigan do for ST, he'd be just as devastating imo.
Its clear to me that Gaskell needs to be on the field for us to perform smoothly and to give us the all important long kicking game.
Lance is very possibly dodgy under the high ball.
So for me, there's two solutions, either Lomax at #1 and Lance at #7, or Lomax at #7 and Lance at #14.

Lomax at FB is acceptable to me as well. That makes Wellens number four choice I'm sorry to say.

good idea, has worked wonders for wigan

But, from an England point of veiw, I'd rather Lomax stay at #7. I reckon we'd have been better with J-Lo than we were with Chase last year.

Not many would have predicted the scale of Lomax's success at #7, but combined with the Hohaia signing its caused a real selection problem. Despite it being a well timed signing with Easmond announcing his departure, hindsight would have seen us go for someone else, perhaps.

It'll be an interesting year for Lomax this year, he'll be a marked man after his good performances last year.

A move to full back for him will allow him to still be in a position to control the game, still be in a position to take advantage of broken play but it will allow him to take a step back from the firing line. He's not looked a liability under the high ball and he's a good tackler.

It would be a positive move for me.

Gaskell has to be in at half back due to neither Lomax or Hohaia having a good enough kicking game to pair them at half back.

its not just the kicking game, either. Lomax and Lance are quite frenetic and rombustuous, Gaskell smooths everything thing out for us with Ball in hand, with compliments partnering one of the above.

I'd go with Lomax at FB, regardless of the England situation

As much as I thought lomax played well last year I don't think he's a scrum half, ive no doubt he can play there and he's a very good player but I'm not convinced he's a 7.


Saying that, we don't know if lance can make a job of it at 7 either.

I just couldn't pick my back line at the moment, I change my mind every 5 mins.

me too!

That's a good position to be in though!

It certainly is but im sure injuries will decide which players play where if our luck is same as last two years.

I honestly cant choose what backs I'd pick this moment in time if all are fit.

I think apart from Shenton everyone else is playing for a position. Hopefully the coach feels the same.

Hopefully the coach won't feel under pressure in to picking lomax at 7 due to his brilliant season las year and lance at 6 due to his salary because lee Gaskell is a must as well as shenton.