Not a lot of love for Gale...

I do like it when there's a hard time picking a 17. Shows that we are heading in the right direction player-wise.

As we've not retained Langley, I think Addy should get the 13 spot. I think that his time playing in the halves will make him a better fit there this season and give us an extra option in attack.

I must of changed my starting 17 at least 6 times since yesterday .I think the difference in half back pairings is interesting and healthy,I'm sure FC will be having the same headaches soon. No doubt we won't have a full squad to pick from for the first game

I'm beginning to think 8th place is too low to aim for

In the words of that super group,S Club 7, Reach For The Stars

Id personally go

Kearney
Kear
Blythe
Henry
George
Gaskell
Sammut
Scruton
Heath
Nas
Addy
Ferguson
Bateman

Thought Addy was superb on the fringes for scotland, would like to see John given a sort of roaming role at 13 to mix it up in the middle when needs be, like evryone has said its not a simple pick can only be good for the future

I think Bateman is better outside and Addy up the middle. He is an outstanding runner.

We could do with him now.

Ben Evans into backrow.

Apparently that is the plan.

Now that Bateman has gone my team has changed quite a bit:

1 Kearney
2 Kear
3 Blythe
4 Henry
5 Foster
6 Gaskell
7 Sammut
8 Scruton
9 L'Estrange
10 Carvell
11 Winterstein
12 Ferguson
13 Addy

14 Diskin
15 Sidlow
16 Manuokafoa
17 Evans

I'll probably change my mind again tomorrow.

Ben Evans into backrow.

Donaldson and Ferguson in the second row is pretty solid defensively.

Now looks quite significant that we kept Donno. The official statement says that Batemen has put in several transfer requests over the last 2yrs so the club must have always known this had the potential to happen.

IMO, the loss of Whitehead was a bigger loss than Bateman.

Looking through the stats on the SL website, Bateman consistently failed to make top 10 on pretty much every important stat. Where as Whitehead makes a fair few appearances.

TBH, I think the trouble with Bateman is that he's had people in his ear telling him what a superstar he's going to be and huge glittering future he's going to have. Thing is, no one seems to have told him he needs to have put in a lot more work than he has done to achieve that level that's expected of him.

He may knuckle down at Wigan as I'm sure their head coach won't stand for any of the rumoured shenanigans that Bateman's gotten involved with. But there's question marks over his fitness and commitment.