Quote: Father Ted "Perhaps Rowley's reason he stood down his first team players was that he thought they would lose at Wigan whatever team he put out.
Thinking Salford would lose, better not to risk his best players when they may have a better chance of a win in the play offs. He will have seen the Wigan v Leeds game and like everyone been aware of the Warriors physicality. I do think having seen that then having his teams recovery period reduced he decided to play his second best side.'"
And that also speaks to the point earlier about the sort of advantage that 1st and 2nd have over the rest. For all we're talking about needing to play our best team to get them battle-hardened, that's safe in the knowledge that we have a week off and then a maximum of two games to prepare for. Most teams struggle to raise their intensity for one play off standard game, let alone three back to back if they want to win at OT.
Rowley is probably thinking that his best team, playing at their best, have half a chance of causing an upset. But he's probably also thinking that backing up performances is really hard at the best of times for a squad like Salford's, so why put yourself in that position?
