Yes for me. At a minimum I’d want Douglas to get a debut.

With the mention of cooper and Harvard potential back. I’d like us to rest Thompson and maybe Mago for this one. I’d give rocky a run out and hope they can find a way to rest faz.

Other than that full strength, think looking at their injuries could really build a healthy points difference in this game. Will come in handy

Potential banana skin for me. They’ll be smarting after last week and being accused of a lack of effort, there’s a real chance complacency could have an effect on us.

I’d like to see a few fringe players in who have a point to prove and are playing for a place. Maybe Douglas for Miski, Rocky for French or Field, Forber for O’Neill & Chan for Ellis or Thompson.

Not sure I'd be resting the spine players. They've all had a week off earlier in the year and outside of two or three games it's not been the most intense start to the year. Getting some continuity in at fullback and halfback has really benefitted the attack in recent weeks.

Maybe rest Thompson, Faz and Miski.

No banana skin for me, they are a poor side.

They were poor at full strength but with 10+ injuries they're truly awful. It's a long road back for Cas - they need significant investment and they also need to prioritise their youth development.

We have Vella as ref. Jesus wept, the game will grind to a halt and all life will be sucked out of the game by his constant whistle blowing

Oh FFS, it's almost enough to make you want to skip the game.

Horrible, horrible man.

Hope we don't rest a stack of players. We did that against London then the following week the game at Salford was awful. I know we won but after Cas we go to HKR. If we rest players then play at HKR as we did against Salford there isn't prayer we'd get a win.
Matty Peet will be starting with Junior following the dreadful injury to Willie so may only go with one other change. Maybe Cooper on the bench. MP will want to post a win at their place more than anything.
Another reason not to rest players is the points difference on the SL Table. As we all know we topped the SL and won the LLS due to points difference. It could well be the same this season. There also appear to be three whipping boys this season with Cas, London & Hull FC. We are at home to Cas as Saints host Hull FC. Saints will want to appease their fans with a thumping win and Salford will be looking to fill their boots when they visit London. We could do with a heavy win to help us along the way.

Vella…ffs! (A few beers might be needed to get through it)

We can definitely afford to rest 2 or 3. We won’t be losing this one, even if we rest half the team. I would never normally say that but it was pathetic on Sunday that Cas effort and they won’t be turning that round in 5 days. I said earlier the main priority for me is to get Douglas a game. He’s been patiently waiting for a chance and there is no reason not to play him. I’d also like to see us get Eckersley a game at centre. I might leave it at that in terms of younger players, with guys like Hill and Nsemba already in the team. Havard isn’t ready yet according to Peet last week and I’d probably rest Thompson.

I’d be happy with something like-

Field
Douglas Keighran Eckersley Marshall
French Smith
Hill O’Neill Dupree
Nsemba Farrell Ellis

Subs
Cooper Mago Chan Leeming

Honestly, i am a season ticket holder and i am still skipping this one. Absolutely 0 motivation to witness another game vs. Cas after standing through that one this past weekend. Particularly one at home which makes it even less interesting. Then you realise we still have to play them away AGAIN in june

Might not even watch it live on tv, Leeds vs Huds sounds a more interesting game and will watch Wigan vs Cas when i have spare time.

Is Havard not fit?

Peets pre game interview on Wigan TV for the Cas cup game confirmed he’d had some test results that weren’t as good as they’d hoped and that his return would be put back as a result. He didn’t put any timescales on it, just saying that they wouldn’t rush him. He said he was training, so it didn’t sound a major setback.

I'd like to see something similar although I don't think we lose too much with Hampshire, both in terms of pace or experience, so I'd be happy to see him in the mix too.

Agree. It's difficult to make these calls week-by week when you're actively choosing to not put your best team out. But I think it's very unlikely that we'll be as fortunate with injuries in the backs as we were for the second half of last year. So it's not just a case of giving the first teamers the break they need, it's also giving Hampshire, and certainly Eckersley and Douglas game time so we don't need to throw them into a potentially season-defining game without them having played ay first team rugby.


I actually thought last week might've been the best opportunity for that even in a knockout game, but personally I'd be making at least one or two changes.