Quote: Barbed Wire "You asked why he is in the squad. I responded implying that there are no other fit first team players. If he was being considered for selection, unless he wasn’t fit at the time, common sense would have been at Magic. Widdop was fit, Williams played. Ratchford and Matautia played. We had a back up for fullback on the wing and Currie and Nicholson are capable of centre cover. Yet he put Dean on the bench, and recalled him to do so. Unless there is some premonition that Widdop was to bust his shoulder, I can’t understand the logic of having a half on the bench with all of those options on the field. Another forward or a back up dummy half would have made sense.'"
I've mentioned this a couple of times, our standard bench set up has been, 3 middles and walker to spell clark, or Davis in th3 walker spot.
Contrast this with saints who prior to this year had welsby on the bench who got minutes wherever aside from prop, he just filled in, he got time on the field then last year had his break out (which again was filling in half/fb/centre or wing, then saints had Dodd as a fixture on the bench, they were able to do this as they hadn't committed to the two hookers tactic. It appears now that Powell is trying to do this accommodate at least one junior player on the bench, if he can't fit them into the starting line up.