To start the season I'd go with:

1. Halley
2. Reardon
3. Sykes
4. Nero
5. Sheriffe
6. Kearney
7. Orford
8. Scruton
9. L'Estrange
10. Lynch
11. Menzies
12. Hall
13. Langley

14. Godwin
15. Sculthorpe
16. Donaldson
17. Kopczak

But as many people have said, i'd see how Kearney and Sheriffe perform, and if it looked like the best option, put Halley on the wing and Kearney to full back.

There's a theme to all these line ups, the pack virtually picks itself (which is a worry when we get injuries) with no place for kojack. Not that im too upset about that, his defence is ok but he does'nt carry the ball strong enough for mine, but we do have plenty options in the backs.

I don't think you can call it a worry when you pack picks itself.

We have some good youngsters in forwards. Sure all will be used over the season.

Our worry is still in the backs.

Kopzcak is steadily improving, defends well, doesn't give away many penalties and gains an average amount of metres. he'll be used as fourth prop and I think he will be in the starting 17 when fit.

Kopczak just not good enough for mine.

I think pairing Sheriffe up with either Nero or Reardon as his centre would improve his game and shore up our defence on his side. Once to often Sheriffe when paired with Sykes found himself defending 2 on 1 as Sykes has a tendancy to drift in field and leave his winger exposed. Nero and Reardon are a bit more secure defensively and would provide Sheriffe a bit more protection.

think I d start with thiis lneup and see how it goes

1. halley
2. sheriffe
3. nero
4. sykes
5. reardon
6. kearney
7. orford
8. scrtuton
9. godwin
10. lynch
11. langley
12. hall
13. menzies

14. l'estrange
15. sculthorpe
16. kopczak
17. donlaldson

dont want to see sykes paired with sheriife again. If sheriffe cant switch sides then swap sykes for platt to strengthen that sides defense up. See godwin as a better starting option at this point thouigh that could change once Ive seen how l'estrange goes. think menzies would create a bit more than langers at loose and would like him to be rotated a fair bit with donaldson to give him max gametime hence his inclusion on bench.

He's better than a lot of other clubs' fourth props.


Btw, I hope Sykes has worked on his defence this off season, because we could use his attacking flair in the three quarters, but only if he is no longer a liability in defence.

thing to remember with kopczak is he's still relatively young for a prop and still learning and bulking up. props dont hit their peak until their late 20's as a rule. sam and luke burgess are the obvious exceptions to that

Id go as far as to say if sykes has improved defensively I'd leave him out and put platt in, who is a lot stronger defensively and is a decent attacking player although maybe not as strong in that department as sykes.

1 HALLEY
2 PLATT
3 MENZIES
4 NERO
5 REARDON
6 KEARNEY
7 ORFORD(C)
8 SCRUTON
9 L'ESTRANGE
10 LYNCH
11 WHITEHEAD
12 HALL
13 LANGLEY

SUBS
14 GODWIN
15 DONALDSON
16 SYKES
17 SCULTHORPE

I still have some concerns that our pack won't be 'nasty' enough. We've got a pack full of grafters and we also have some quality ball handlers. But do we have many in our pack who the opponents actually fear?

Whilst we now have a scrum half who can take control of the game, I just hope our forwards will be able to hold their own against the very best packs in SL.

Thats my concern too especially if say langley & menzies are out with injuries at the same time, we'll have to put a young pack out against some monster ones, im just thinking back to saints at home last season puletua & co ran over us.

IMO best way to resolve the Halley / Kearney position dilemma would be to play Halley at fullback in defense and Kearney on the wing but allow Kearney the free moving attack the fullback has to take advantage of his support play and postioning and move Halley to the wing during attack to take advantage of his speed.

The only problem with this is should we kick to the corner and they counter attack, Halley could be caught short.

Sculthorpe gets in the oppositions faces a bit and will provide good impact off the bench. Scruton can be nasty, and he puts some monster hits in defence. I don't think our pack will be a worry really.

Menzies to centre and Whitehead to start ?

Bit too early for Whitehead imo, plus L'Estrange is much better coming off the bench.