Not Sykes in the centres, his defence isn't up to it I might give him a go alongside Orford in the halves, with Kearney at fullback and Halley on the wing.

Kearney
Halley
Platt
Nero
Reardon
Sykes
Orford
Lynch
L'estrange
Scruton
Hall
Menzies
Langley

www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=5296 Confirmed

www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=5296 Confirmed

That would be my favoured line up.

I still think they'll be up there, but 3 or 4 injuries to that squad and they could be in trouble. (I don't know how good the kids they've got coming through are though!)

Agreed.

Interesting choice of words there.

I`ve not seen any mention of a fee, so it gives the impression that we`ve just allowed him to go, the choice of words used by the Wigan chairman seems to suggest this also. It`s pretty common practice to let players who have given trojan service over the years go on a `free` when they semi retire (usually by dropping a division) or go into coaching, though perhaps not quite so common when they move on a playing contract to rival club.

Still, maybe we asked but Wigan refused pay a fee and we didn`t want the whole chain to collapse? Who knows, everyone seems happy though so maybe it`s just not important.

whats the crack with players who have been at the club over ten years, is it 50% or 50K of their salary comes off the cap? and if so is it for that specific testimonial year or for the remainder of his time at the club, so will this now apply to Langley?

I read the Op. Rules on this earlier. I think its ten years from when they first played in a "salary cap" match - in which case we have a bit to go with Jamie yet (was it 2002 he debuted?)

It was 2002 for Jamie. I presume that it has to be 10 years' [icontinuous[/i service. If it were only 10 years from debut, Sykes would qualify.

I agree on the Sykes at 6, Kearney at 1 - I reckon that Sykes could be an outstanding compliment to Orford - but would still have some concerns with Platt at centre. It's a while back but Reardon used to be a great centre in the academy and I'd rather see him or Crookes there with Platt or Sheriffe on the wing.

Also reckon that Donaldson should be pushing for the starting 13 shirt.

The spine of the side - 1,6,7,13,9 - suddenly looks really rather ok.

Continuous, yes. And just re-checked: yes its from debut season. So Sykes would not qualify.

Well, well, well. Its all quite exciting isn't it?

I can't be doing with all the positivity on here though. Bring back the doom and gloom.