I can not wait for Saturday, after the Leeds regular season game was over I thought our season was done but Wane has played a blinder and got us to OT. My 17 would be:

Tomkins
Charnley Goulding Thornley Richards
Smith Green
Mossop McIlorum Dudson
Farrell Hansen
Flower

Bench of: Taylor Crosby Tuson O'Loughlin/Logan.

Although I think Wane will go with Lockers at 13 if fit, with Flower on the bench.

IMO, Hull in the Semi showed us the way to play Wire. It may be negative, but kick continuously on the 3rd/4th tackle, Wire are the best attacking team in the comp but one thing I think they do struggle with is posing a threat from deep. Our backs need to work very hard and help to bring us out of our half with good footwork getting a quick play the ball. If we just plough it up the middle with our forwards, we will get mullered IMO that is where Wire suffocate teams.

Hudds seemed to cause Wire problems last week every time they got near their line, Wire's defence did not look good last week defending simple set plays. We MUST get at Riley as much as possible he is a weak link in defence his positioning at times is baffling.

It's a tall order as Wire IMO are the better team, however you never know on Final days. It would be a fantastic achievement to lift the trophy with a squad we all thought would get nowhere near a final.

I'd go with the same 17 as you, Lockers off the bench if he's fit enough to take part, though I'd go with Hughes not Logan if not.

Play them in THEIR half...offer differnt things such as if Wire win the kick off and opt to kick you know they will be steaming in looking for a mistake. Dilute this by kicking it back ala Joe Lydon used to do on the 1st tackle and turn the forwards round and play them in their own half...

If we are playing them in their half and they break through there is a chance we will get back, playing them in our own 25 and we have no chance.


Kick to Atkins side as Josh will be on them.

Lockers on the bench for me and bring him on when they are puffing a bit...Flowers and 5 props is a must.

If Lockers is fit...

Tomkins
Charnley Goulding Thornley Richards
Mossop McM Dudson
HH Faz
Lockers
-------------------------------
Flower Taylor Crosby Hughes

Tactics: high intensity, similar to Leeds Wire have a lot of players post 30 who will feel the pace if we keep the intensity high.
Bring on Flower and Taylor slightly after they bring on their second stint and strong front row of Moz, Cavell and Higham/Mons to null their impact.

Five Props.....Five Props

Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Thornley
Richards
Green
Smith
Mossop
MM
Dudson
Farrell
Hansen
Flower

Taylor
Crosby
Tuson
Logan (Should go with Powell but we wont.)

+1
I don't think Lockers will be fit, more's the pity.

If lockers is fit he has to play. I'd start him too! Backs pick themselves really but forwards, I'd start with Mossop, MM, Flower, HH, Faz & Lockers. Dudson, Hughes, Taylor & Crosby on the bench. Agree with the above re tactics, play them in their half and smash (hard but legal) Briers as early as we can!

I'd like to pre-empt the next 5 pages of "tactical" suggestions by stating that we need to :

Smash the playmakers.
Win the ruck.
Kick into space.
Target their wing we deem weakest.

Take note, Mr. Wane.

And stop the off loads.
Three weeks ago Leeds killed us with off loads.
Last week they were stifled.
Wire can get three men committed into the tackle then offload.
That has to be stopped at all costs!

Run harder, tackle harder, play at a higher intensity than Wire. Keep smacking Briers so he looses his cool again.

Stick with them for the first twenty minutes and whatever we do don't let them get two scores infront. If we're there or thereabouts come the last twenty minutes hopefully our younger legs will see us home.

As for the team if Lockers can muster 20-30 mins I'd rather have him on the bench then Logan Tomkins. I've been pretty impressed with Hughes in the past couple of games as well but Tuson just edges it for me due to his aggression.

Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Thornley
Richards
Green
Smith
Mossop
McIlorum
Dudson
Hansen
Farrell
Flower

Subs
Crosby
Taylor
Tuson
O'Loughlin

FB 1 Sam
RW 2 Charnley
RC 3 Goulding
LC 17 Thornley
LW 5 Richards
SO 6 Green
SH 7 Smith
P 20 Dudson
H 9 McIlorum
P 10 Mossop
SR 11 Hansen
SR 12 Farrell
LF 15 Flower

S 13 O'Loughlin/4 Hughes
S 16 Tuson
S 21 Taylor
S 26 Crosby

Keep Lockers out of the opening exchanges when their pack has the most energy, having an extra prop on in Flower will be handy then anyway. Then introduce Lockers for a spell later on. I've put Hughes in there if Lockers is injured but only to cover for injuries/terrible performance to be honest, I wouldn't use him otherwise.

It's tough on MM having to play the full 80 but we really suffer when he's off. If Hampshire had been given more gametime during the regular season I'd go for him off the bench with Smith going to 9 but it's too risky throwing him straight into the final

There is 2 key things we need to do on sat kicking game is crucial now over the last few weeks we have played the slow game field position pinning the other team in their half and we need to do the same tries will come off the pressure

The second which has been a worry for me is the communication with Pat and Thornley which i put down to the latter quite a few time this season we have been caught out wide on their side it 100% will cost us the game if they don't get this right we all know how wire like to score out wide

I think Logan should miss out we need the big lads to keep rotating cause it changed the game for them when Morley and Carvell came on against Hudd Micky is fine doing 80 mins

Tactics - We need to keep their forwards working hard to get out of their own half. If make decent metres, kick off the front foot, force drop outs/20 metre restarts and work them for every step they will tire before we do due to their age and size. Shutting down Briers is massive too, if he has room to manoeuvre he'll kill us, but he's not going to do anything special if they don't have momentum and we get up to him quickly. A little bit of niggle on him wouldn't hurt either, anything to put him off his game. I hope Matty Smith has been practicing drop goals too, he usually misses his first attempt, he might not get a second on Saturday.