Didn’t we start Ashton at fullback in the challenge cup semi v Salford and tried to squeeze Ratchford, Austin and Widdop into 6, 7 & 13? We all know how that ended but agree Ashton needs game time.

I wouldn't be averse to trying it again and certainly wouldn't use the semi against Salford as the yardstick.

A close game that we should have closed out but didn't and I don't think that the line up affected this, we just never broke clear and they were always in it .The game was played in tricky conditions yes it was the same for both teams so no complaints on that score. We had an uncharacteristic error from one of our few bright performers and in the last couple of seasons our only win against them was a 24 0 gimme no matter who we picked.

The only game where we came out with any positive recently was the one where we played the kids and a close defeat.

Mamo in for Wrench
Philbin to the bench
D Clarke in from the off
J Clark to 13 (a little relunctantly)
Ashton for Charnley
Philbin, Mulhearn, Butler/Robson, Walker to the bench

I don’t dig Ashton on the wing.

For all Charnley’s faults his numbers are great and he’s still a top finisher. Ashton is not big enough to be a winger. He’s perfect for the fullback role where has that space to return the ball and use his footwork and then also support players in our attacks.

But Ashton at FB disrupts Ratchford which disrupts the halves.

Charnley was all over the place at the weekend and his performances have been flatlining for some time now.

It has been a long time since Charnley presented a threat in attack, now there maybe all sorts of reasons for that but it is worry.

I thought that after the game. We put Wrench in against Shenton in the first game of the season where a win is desperately needed to build momentum and played Brand against Hurrell in his debut. I'm happy we blood youngsters, honestly, but surely there's a slightly better way of doing it, especially of you have Mamo as an alternative. The Brand move in particular was a very very questionable selection

Spot on. I’m all for giving youngsters a chance but there’s a time and a place. Throwing Brand in against arguably the biggest centre in the world was dumb.

I’m not convinced with Ratchford at fullback of late. He was caught out a few times positionally on Sunday. I think he’d give us better value at loose as a ball playing lock.

I’ll reserve judgment on Josh until he plays outside Inglis. Which looks to be the way we’re going.
It looks to me that Charnley hasn’t had a settled 3/4 throughout preseason. I’m off his back until then.

Charnley had a bad game, it happens. The bounce did him twice and his steal was deemed illegal among a couple of other things.

His try scoring record for us is 1 in 2ish which isn't that bad, but he's a winger that used to score 1 in 1. He can't be having that much fun out there getting poor service or not being used as the threat he is.