I would imagine that, with a new baby in the household, he's perhaps not at his freshest. Walker was doing a decent enough job so every minute spent off the pitch is money in the bank in preparation for the back end of the season.

Cooper needs to play less minutes during the next few weeks.

If anything I think Salford are stronger this season (especially the backs) than last season with Sarginson & Watkins etc. They will miss Evalds though.

Based on what we have seen after the re start we should have more then enough to rotate the squad for these two games.

If we want to be seriously mentioned as genuine finalists for both finals we need to be winning both for me come the CC game we will have played 13 games if we can look to win both games we would be sitting at a 76.92% win percentage and only 2 games to play for our total to qualify us for a chance at the top 4 Play best side for Catalans rotate for Salford in the league and then go again best team for the cup.

Big thing I can see this year is our D has very aggressive and we are still scratching at the surface on our A not a bad place to be in credit to the coaching staff...

I believe that if we win 12 games we are more -or-less guaranteed top-four finish. As the semis will be at neutral grounds that's all you need to achieve, no need to bust a gut to get top spot.

Still be nice to hit the business end with form though. i wouldn't want us to take our foot off the gas just because we where guaranteed a top 4 spot. Least we can try and be clever about it especially when the 2 games a week come into it.

Salford can’t rotate. We get our fringe to give them a muscle match, then we flog them fatigued with the strong line up in the CC.
That was pretty much what we saw with pie vs Dull, and specifically Leeds and Cas. Cas were absolutely shot after their epic effort vs Wire. Wire effectively gift wrapped a semi spot for Leeds, as we did a couple of seasons ago, giving Catalans a CC final spot after burning Saints first team engine to empty the week before that game.

Agree with the folk who say Salford should not be underestimated. As Tiger Ninestein use to say, "expect the unexpected".

League game moved forward to Tuesday 29th at 6pm.

It's like back to back Easter fixtures. Swings and roundabouts as it's a day less to recover from Catalans.

Up to Price to keep the team focused on the Catalan game. Catalan are still looking for a top four finish (they have only lost the same number of league games as the four teams above them). They are also coming off the back of throwing a game away and being knocked out of the cup - they'll have a point to prove.

Good to have home advantage against Catalan.

What's unexpected about losing to Salford?

I expect to lose to them at least once per season and this rule of thumb has held true through most of my time as a Wire fan.

Salford game now 5 30 kick off to accommodate early closing time in pubs , I thought they weren't allowed to show sport in pubs at present.