....gives us about a 60% chance of playing Catalan in Week 1, 40% of playing Leeds IMO.

Finshing 2nd means about 95% chance of playing Saints in Week 1.


With our record this season against Saints we might be better off finishing 2nd!! Even if we played and beat Catalan in Week 1, i'd fancy Leeds to beat Catalan away the week after meaning a Wigan v Leeds showdown at the DW to get to Old Trafford. I'd put that game at about 55/45 to Wigan but wonder how much a trip to Perpignan would take out of Leeds compared to the week off for Wigan.

It might be beneficial for Leeds to finish 6th and avoid the trip to Perpignan and take a more likely trip to Standish-with-Langtree Park in Week 2!!

Permutations, permutations!!!

The thing is thou you cant write of Saints or even more so Leeds in the Play-Offs...

I want us to finish top, don't care who we play after that, it'll take care of itself.

I feel that Saints don't have the belief of previous seasons. That's just the feeling i get. I wouldn't fancy them to beat either us or Wire away.

If we have more or less a fully fit team ( ie Tommy and possibly Pat back and all the forwards relatively fresh), we'll beat anyone!

we beat Saints 3 times last season then lost 2 play off games against them!! I don't care who we play in the play offs

Amen to that.

Finish top, get the prize money. Then worry about the play offs.

Win on Saturday to more or less Guarentee 1st and then 3 games left with 1 week rest gives us a good chance to rest key players and then smash anyone who gets in our way in the playoffs and I mean anyone.

I'd prefer Catalans at home 1st game I think

I want us to finish first, it's not certain we'll win (or even get to) the GF. The LLS is better than nothing as Warrington leant last year.

resting players vs losing momentum is a difficult one.
last year we didn't rest players and looked done in by the time the play-offs arrived. however, this season, with 2 less games and a lot more injuries, we don't have that problem as the players don't look to be quite so burned out.
in previous years we've also seen teams stumble when they rest players, lose a game, and then the momentum has gone.

on balance, i think getting players back is the key to which approach we use.
so long as we have a full squad to play with, we can rest key players without weakening the team too much.
if we don't have the players back, then i would not want to see a repeat of widnes/bradford/leeds in the cup, so would keep the core of the team playing.

I desperately want us to win the league.

Would bloody love to as good as do it on Saturday at that hole.

Finishing 1st would take some pressure off imo because as much as it's not much of a trophy it's still something and it will help drive us on in the play offs.

As for the play offs it really doesn't matter who we play. Teams raise their games to a level they haven't reached in the regular rounds so anybody will do.

We are not Chinese badminton players.
Play to win every game.
To do anything else would be pathetic.