I think Leigh beats that team

I still wouldn't expect it but it's probably weak enough that they could cause an upset if we have a bad day. Don't underestimate how poor Leigh are.

On paper they certainly don’t. We’ll have to be well off to get beat even with that team but it’s certainly possible. Leigh don’t have players of the class of Bateman, Farrell, Hardaker, Leuluai etc. If our attitude is right then we win the game and it’s that simple for me. I’m actually hoping that having a weakened side guards against complacency and could work to our advantage in that regard. It would take a HKR performance from last year to get in to trouble and surely we won’t be that laid back with most of our back line missing.

It doesnt always come down to the skill on the field, otherwise Salford and Cas wouldnt have beat us last year

Hastings is a must for me.

I'd go with Halsall on the wing and four forwards on the bench, so Byrne instead of Smith.

Hastings isn't injured and he is available.

He looked as fit as the proverbial butchers dog in those club pics last week, definitely playing

One question, how did the management allow us to be so short of threequarters? For us to only have one fit winger at pre-season training is unbelievable especially when you consider Dom's injury record (ignoring the broken thumb). The Club were also aware that there were no wingers emerging from the juniors and knew that Bevan would not be back in time for the start of the season. Extremely poor planning and definitely not how Wigan usually operate.

Just one of those things really. They couldn't have known Field, Gildart and Manfredi would all get injured at the same time. Plus we had no cap space anyway until G.Burgess left very recently. We do have wingers emerging in Hanley and Halsall, it's just that the jury is definitely out over whether they are ready.

Fully agree and I wouldn’t be massively shocked if there was a surprise result. I was just responding to the fact you said ‘I think Leigh beats that team’ without any context. It doesn’t beat it on paper and doesn’t beat it if both teams turn up with their attitudes absolutely spot on. If we turn up thinking it’ll be a walk in the park then we could get burned. If we turn up with a really good attitude then we win the game, even with a weakened side. We’ll have to be on it though without any doubt because Leigh will come out flying.

a few out of position and playing a lot of youngsters against experienced players