Hampshire is a gem and it'd be exciting to watch him but ultimately there's nowhere to put him. He's very inexperienced and we're carrying enough young lads in the team. We have Matty Bowen at fullback who is experienced and knows what to expect. We have Green at 6 who was MOM in the grand final and has a point to prove down under. The only other option was to bench Hampshire and use him at 7 with Smith at 9 when Micky Mac goes off but that's disruptive to our pattern of play as Smith will be controlling us from 7.

There just isn't room to play him IMO but his time will come.

I agree, I've got no doubt that Hampshire's time will come, but people need to be patient. People caliing for him to be put in at FB over Bowen, for example. He's 19, he'll probably play 10-15 games this season and he'll benefit massively from that. Throwing him in at the deep end to play a WCC in Oz when he's got less than 10 first team appearances under his belt isn't the right approach.

They've shown on the other board that there are two refs for the WCC as it's being played under NRL rules.
When was that agreed? I never remember it being played under SL rules here but International rules.
Has this been agreed by Wigan or imposed upon them?

It a farce whoever has agreed it.

Why isn't the world game being played under one set of rules? Ridiculous!!

Lockers is fine according to Rads in his blog. He was working on some extras at the end of training and refused to cut them short to go to the press conference (Rads praised his attitude in doing that).

Rads went on to bag the Aussie media saying how disrespectful they were by just wanting to talk about Sam Burgess and not the game. He says it's added fuel to the Wigan fire!

This guy talks sense. Smith and Green IMO are simply pivots, its rare they show any pace or zip to cause a threat to the defensive line, its too easy to defend. Stillinthepast knows his stuff!

Tragic if Clubb makes the team and Hampshires left out.

Brother, cousin, son, nephew, 2nd cousin or brother in law? Nobody is questioning that hampshire has a huge future but to say he is better than green or smith now is simply stupid.

Tuivasa-Sheck is out for the Roosters, other than that they are at full strength

that is a big threat gone just hope maloney pulls out now haha

They're aware of our threats according to Mitchell Pearce on Wigan TV and will be pinpointing O'Loughlin, Chandler and our ginger backrower.

Think our lads should dye there hair or shave it off and confuse the sh*t out of them because it's quite clear from that interview that not all the Roosters players have paid much attention to detail!

Disrespect? Just a tad.

The Roosters shouldn't have much of a problem winning this one.
The Aussies have changed the rules to suit their own team by having the game played under NRL rules rather International Rules.
As if Ben Cummings didn't have enough excuse for penalising Wigan this gives him all the more.
Whoever agreed this in the Wigan camp needs a good talking to.
Yet another Aussie scam to give their team preferential treatment. That Wigan have gone along with it is naive.
If has been imposed then the Aussies should have been told "its either played
under International Rules or else it won't be played at all!"
With 25000 tickets or so sold they would have backed down!
No wonder I have a jaundiced view on International Rugby League.

why dont they all play in SBW masks and swap the numbers on their shirts to A - Q letters

It will be international rules, with 2 referees being the only difference.

I for one couldn't care what bloody rules it's played under. My team will win and bring home this World Club Challenge.

Wigan Warriors - History makers