Absolutely agree, thewlis to full back.

In view of the number of troops we are likely going to be missing, I think some creative, lateral, out of the box approach is all we are going to be left with.

For me this would entail forgetting about the need for halfbacks (they give us nothing anyway), and lump up with a couple of second rows at 6 and 7, and four bench forwards.

Possibly Livett And Currie.

The game plan being to roughly but legally, in the Pies way, batter them down the middle as hard and often as possible .

If Austin and Matty Smith can't play then I would happily go with the option of forwards playing half back roles. The only worry is we would only really have one in play kicker (Ratchford). I have not really seen Livett put boot to ball properly.
It sounds like the only option as I don't fancy Naquiama running at our left edge with Patton in there.

This topic is "good news", have I missed it?

I don't suppose that will be much less creative than we have been.

What have you heard do tell please

Presuming all of Austin, Ratch, charnley, hughes are not fit a team of

Mamo
Lineham
King
Livett
Goodwin

Patton
Currie

Hill
Clarke
Cooper
BBM
Clark J
Davies

Sita
Philbin
Westwood
Tasi

Doesnt look hopeful

I hear Charnley and Hughes will be fit to play.

Hearing the same, Austin is still 50/50.

Saints by 30-40 points...What is the record scoreline in a final?

1 half...extra forward, as mentioned earlier in the thread.

I believe Charnley and Hughes will play too.

I’m a realistic man slightly to the side of positive. I never read too much into bad runs of form and tend to see why teams are in those runs.

But it’s not that we are a really good team that’s really well coached in a rut. With us, we have some of the best players in the league who always stand up and stand out against anyone (Ratchford Austin and Clark) but we also have a lot of deadwood and a complete lack of pace and punch in the forwards. And we are not well coached and we lack creative plays.

We are capable of raising our game when our best players play well and the middle ground lads who aren’t our best players but aren’t the deadwood raise their game.

But we are a bit beat up at the moment, not at full strength and Ratchford and Austin are coming off the back of long term or recent injuries.

Even if our big three put in top level performances and our middle ground raise their game, we have a lot of gaps and fitness issues to be anywhere near confident of winning this game.

Well of course you'd say your injured star player is only 50/50 to make the final line-up