Sims vs McIlorum could get tasty!

I'd agree with that 17, but I'd juggle them around bit, Lockers to start at 13, Bateman 2nd row, Farrell on the bench.

Few weeks back I'd have agreed but Faz looks back to his best to me. He had another big game today and linked well with Sarginson and Burgess.

I'd just hold Lockers back a little and ease him back in. He's our best player and if we're to win anything we'll need him fit at the back end of the year.

I'd also consider second thoughts on Ben Flower. Not sure we need the hype of a return against Wire on Sky so I'd maybe sneak him back in against Wakey away.

MM would take him apart at the joint.

All Sims is good for is a bit of shouting and screaming

I wasn't trying to get you to bite. Only a few weeks ago Wigans own fans were in agreement that you were giving away silly penalties and being reckless when there was no need to be. Paul Wood last year was ridiculous and I don't know why he did what he did, I firmly believe he sent us on our way to losing that match. But come on, if you can't see your team rough housing then you're in denial, Joel Tomkins is ALWAYS looking for a fight, the sniff of something and he runs half the length of the field to get involved. Tony Clubb is reckless with his hits too. McIlorum can be late after the ball has gone sometimes.

Don't bring up the Westwood incident, he was an idiot for doing that and I don't think any Wire fan has said otherwise, but in the same match Harrison Hansen cannon balled Ratchford which saw him leave the field for the remainder of the game.

Watch it again, he hits him around the hip/waist

Probably too risky to make big changes for the Wire game but if we come through unscathed I’d like to see us give this a go v Wakey:

FB 4 Sarginson
RW 22 Manfredi
RC 3 Gelling
LC 2 Charnley
LW 5 Burgess
SO 20 Hampshire
SH 7 Smith
P 23 Mossop
H 9 McIlorum
P 10 Flower
SR 14 Bateman
SR 12 Liam
LF 13 O’Loughlin

S 6 Williams
S 11 Joel
S 17 Clubb
S 24 Tautai

Assuming Sam Tomkins does sign ( ) then Rocky will surely move into the halves so we might as well start bedding him and Smith in as a partnership now. Longer term I see Williams or Powell taking the spot from Smith. Charnley played well at centre for Hull KR so I don’t see any issue with us giving him a go there. There's certainly plenty pace in that team!

I'd just go with our strongest side at Waley regardless of what that may be (going off form, injuries etc).

We need to get that monkey off our back in terms of away form and that has to be the game to solve it.

I think Grimmy was suggesting we make changes for the Wakefield game - who are struggling to say the least at the moment.

I don't think there will be much experimenting on Thursday against Warrington - but I would like to see 4 big forwards on the bench ( ie no Logan).

Crosby was great v Catalans, quite surprised he was as good as he was after his lay off.

For the Wire game the backs select themselves.
Forwards I'd go with -
Crosby, McIlorum, Mossop, Farrell, J Tomkins, Bateman.
Bench - O'Loughlin, Clubb, Flower & Bowen.

The selction of Bowen is if we get an injury at half back, loose or hooker.
Bowen on, Rocky to stand off and the others as appropriate. If not Bowen then Tautai with Lockers coming in anytime there's an injury.

Read the top paragraph again. Sarginson has shown us promise at FB before, and it allows us to bring one of the best try scorers in the league (Charnley) back into the team and start bedding next year's halfback partnership (Hampshire and Smith, hopefully) a year early. Before Powell got injured Wane used Williams as an iinterchange 9 and commented favourably on it after the game, very much looked like that was going to be the plan going forward before Powell got injured. Crosby was good against Catalans but has been poor for a good while before that. I'd be very surprised if Tautai gets dropped for him. A week or two at Workington wouldn't do him any harm at all

Another top performance from Crosby. He's averaging around 9 metres per carry for the last 2 games. Would like to see him do more carries, but we don't want to overload him with work. Look at Saints and how much they rely on Walmsley, an injury to him and their "best pack in the world" would be boll@@ed!
Is it any coincidence that since Crosby has come back from injury he's looked a different player. I thought he really improved as the season went on last year, so was disappointed with his form before his injury. Flower and Mossop will only get better as they get more into the swing of things. I think our problems at prop have been vastly exaggerated, except the performance at Leeds.

He gets stopped far too easy, we need real props like we used have back in the day (Cowie, O'Connor, Malem, Howard etc)

I though he had a good game against Wire. He looks much better in his past two games than last season or early this season.

He's also added a little more passing to his game which is a good thing too.