For whatever reason has decided to. Its on Warrington Guardian now aswell www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/wol ... _his_team/

For whatever reason has decided to. Its on Warrington Guardian now aswell www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/wol ... _his_team/

no you didn't.. someone else did.

go easy on him, he's probably spewing he didn't get to start this thread on the team announcement.


I guess smith isn't following the doctrine about leeds being light up front, certainly not taking it easy.

hadnt thought of that....

i think smith has identified leeds size as their possible weakness.... now that JP and burgess are missing.... it would appear that he has decided to go for the most physical team possible.

one things for sure.. if we lose the final there will be some on here calling him fit to burn.

You and about 20 other people on here.

In his Challenge Cup final with Leeds, Tony Smith left out Barrie McDermott and went with NO props on the bench vs. a mediocre Hull side in 2005

He does make some strange decisions. That one didn't turn out well.

You have to back Tony Smith and his selection, from a personal point of view i think it weakens us as we have no out and out pace down the middle. Losing Monaghan from around the ruck will weaken us as will Myler's backing up anything that moves like McGuire and Webb do for Leeds.

Clarke gives you a basic game from hooker, Monaghan draws defenders in and creates gaps like he did for Vinnie Anderson in last years final. I wonder how much sentiment their is in the selection of Clarke after he missed out last year, it seems Myler has given way to accomodate Clarke. Our strongest combination at hooker is Monaghan/Higham IMO, Higham comes on and gives you that energy so he wouldn't be competing with Clarke for a place as Clarke in't an impact hooker. It would have been Monaghan v Clarke to start at hooker, the only way to accomodate them both is to do what Tony Smith has done and drop Richie Myler.

I'm not convinced in Monaghan as a 7, you also lose that world class play from 9 which he brings to the team. It can be switched during the game which i'm sure it will, you have to feel for Myler as its a tough thing for a young kid to take.

Anyway, i back Tony Smith fully as he knows more about the game than any of us.

The one not to go for the two points was more so.

He chanced an injured Keith Senior against Hull in the 2005 final which backfired as well, he was never fit.

Testiment to how well V Anderson has been playing. Plus, it worked v well without Myler against Catalans.

The worry for me is we try and play it too much in the forwards. There is obviously an advantage in the pack, esp with Peacock and Burgess on the sidelines.

King and Atkins are in great form out wide though. A more conservative gameplan, based on set completion and physically battering them may well work, but I have my doubts. I think this approach has possibly been the reason we are 1 out 6 against Leeds/Wigan/Saints.

To be honest, as long as we control the ruck area, and stop Maguire the game should be won. Silverwood allows quite a bit of messing around at the play the ball, so we need to slow Leeds down, in the Wigan style.

For the first part that is silly. He is in the team on form and ability.

As for the second part. Absolutely correct.