Wolves 19 man squad for Sunday

Think last week I totally overestimated Saints to the point I gave them a 12pt win before the match due to our injuries. Losing at least two more players from last weeks 17 and none returning to action any time soon I have to wonder just how deep we can dig in to our squad to have a realistic chance of staying within touching distance of you top clubs.

Without experienced half backs and experimenting with different options in those positions we should be easily defendable but then I guess the unknown is harder to defend against which is possibly why we scored 36 points against Saints (or they just have shocking defence!).

We have however been pretty lucky within our strongest area - our pack - it is clearly one of the biggest in the league and has been the biggest reason we've kept in the three games this season. Paea and Mika have really slotted in to the English game like a hand to a glove, Joel Clinton is back to his devastating best and would grace any SL front row on this seasons form. One major worry though is last week both our hookers got injuries with Hodgson going off down the tunnel on crutches. If one or both fail to make tomorrows game then I can see nothing other than Carlisle playing the full 80, something he hasn't done for a number of years and especially not since his heart operation.

Our season so far in my opinion is that we were unlucky against Leeds where we gave away 12 penalties and had a massive decision go against us that Cummings has openly admitted was a wrong decision to award a try to Leeds and really did deflate our team that had worked so hard to get in front.

Then we went to Wakefield where we again picked up injuries, this time to Dobson which left us shuffling our players left, right and centre to try and come up with a way of winning that game. We did very well as again we were penalised 13 times and endured nearly double the amount of tackles on our own line and still kept them scoreless for almost 60 minutes.

Saints were next where we let in three early tries to go 14-0 down, the side got their heads down and scored 3 unanswered tries of their own taking it to 18-14. Withers gave away one of only two penalties and that one was for swearing at the official due to him being held down by Saints. The only other penalty came when it was 36-34 to Rovers in the 82nd minute of the game (yes 82nd!!) and as ever it was a Saints breakaway down from their own try line, a covering tackle made and the hooter clearly should have gone (clock had been stopped on 1.36 for around 2-3 minutes) before that tackle, the next covering tackle was a very high grab by Micky Paea which Jamie Foster kicked to level up the pretty even points fest game!

One thing is for certain, no Rovers player is going to want to be named captain for the rest of this season, every single one of them that leads the team out gets injured in that game!!

Shall see you all for some good entertaining rugby I hope and fingers crossed we can muscle up in defence and keep this one within 18pts.