Any chance of Waney not being 100% truthful here and Powell making a miraculous recovery shortly before the game?

If Hampshire were to be in the 17 then surely it would be Matty Smith to 9 on interchage with Ryan to half back?
Bowen will do the 80 at full back.

good comparison rogues, a young tommy but i would say further developed already than tommy was at his age. Can tackle anyone and is a fantastic organiser who can throw a step and dummy to open up a whole just not going to do a full lengthier.

And the person who said the rooster won't know who he is, unless they didn't watch the nz warriors game they will as he was the one player everybody was talking about after that game. Even some bulldogs fans have been saying they would like to see him playing for them.

It definitely leaves a hole in the side not having Powell available. He was outstanding against the Warriors, he was good at hooker against Huddersfield and also in the warm up games, when he completely outplayed Logan, who was very disappointing.

Sure Logan could just have been a bit off the pace to begin with but he's never really been a good player to use off the bench anyway. The team always seems to drop off.

Starting with him might not be wise either as we've been starting games quite slowly and against the Roosters they could pile on the points.

But then if Logan isn't picked then there's an even bigger problem. It doesn't seem likely that McIlorum will be able to play 80 minutes which means another hooker is needed.

One of the form players has been Ryan Hampshire but there's nowhere to fit him in. Bringing him on at fullback doesn't solve the issue at hooker, bringing him on in the halves and moving Smith to hooker would be a silly risk since he got physically dominated the last time he played there against Hull when the forwards kept running at him. To play him at hooker would be so daft it's not worth considering.

George Williams hasn't been particularly impressive so far this year. I still feel that's mainly because he's been playing on the right and he performs better on the left but he ends up where the coach wants him. He's not a sensible option either.

So really the only options are to risk McIlorum for 80 minutes or put Logan Tomkins on the bench.

I like Powell but can't agree with the TL comparison. TL was an established first team player in his teens.

He came to wigan as a diamond in the rough. many used to moan about his performance pre Maguire. Sam Powell has already shown he can organise the wigan and england knights team.