It should be interesting to see what body shape they are going for with Powell. Will he have shed some mass to gain some zip or will be be the more muscular type of half. I have no issue with him getting that squad number and he always seems more influential when not being spelled.

No real surprises for me except maybe Clubb at 8.
Powell at 7 not my personal initial choice but you've got give the lad a chance before he is written off. Wouldn't surprise me if he also became our regular goal kicker.

I don't think that SW has played a back on the bench for years if ever therefore, I just cannot see Escare playing from the bench.

If the pack are to play differently then having Powell at half will be seen better from a defence point view by SW and his assistants.

If I recall correctly Powell was intended to play at 7 versus the Roosters before he was injured in the warm up game so SW obviously rates him as a 7.

I also think that JT will start before Bateman

Look at the end of the day its something different and Im more than happy to give it a chance. If we'd stuck with Leuluai at 7 that would have been a different story.

Powell simply can't be any worse than Tommy at 7 surely?

I can see something like the following happening.

Sam will start at 1.
Powell will start at 7
Leuluai will start at 9.

Leuluai will go off and Powell will go to 9.
Sam will move to 7 and Escare will come on from the bench at FB.

That gives us a variety that I can’t see at any other club and our squad has phenomenal versatility. The opposition won’t know what we’re going to do from one week to the next and if the combinations work as we’re led to believe then it’ll very very interesting.

I think it's fair to say I'm confident of that. And anyway, as has been widely discussed, we have other options available to try. In this case, any change is all good.

At that time Powell was playing well at 7 (he had started the season really well) and was a shoe-in for the Roosters match - sadly he got injured and never featured much at 7 after that, will be interesting to see how he goes. If (and it was quite a while ago now) he could regain the form he was showing prior to that injury then he could surprise a few people - as has been said he cannot be any worse than Tommy was last season.

Think you're right. Was running the show from 7. Think he turned his ankle in training, stood on a ball if I remember rightly.

Squad numbers makes sense to me.

6 and 7 play close to the ruck as first receivers controlling and organising their own side of the pitch, I believe Powell will be a good organiser from this position. Powell as a rugby brain and will communicate well with Tomkins who will be the main man as he has access to both side of the pitch, the 6 and 7 do not.

Powell will also not let us down defensively in the line.

With this, Tomkins will only do 50% of the tackling (as he's not in the line) allowing him to keep his stamina etc.

That just doesn’t make sense to me whatsoever. What about when Tommy comes back on? Powell back to 7, S Tomkins back to FB and Escare off again? Then the same rigmarole when Tommy goes back off again?

Constantly changing our halves is a p*ss poor tactic and gives us absolutely no continuity whatsoever.

Yeah I don't think that will happen. Suspect it will be Escare into the halves with Powell to hooker. The same as what we previously did with Deacon coming off the bench and Leuluai moving to hooker

If they line up in their squad numbers. Rather than moving half the team around to fit Morgan in. Could he not come on late in each half and play a Rob Burrows type role?

Last season people's expectations of Escare where very low and everyone was pleasantly surprised by his form. Some posters even suggesting that he deserved a place ahead of Sam Tomkins (which was ludicrous). This year things are different.

Expectations are now quite high for Morgan. My gut feeling is that his form in the Catalans game was more like his normal game. I hope I'm wrong about this, but I don't think he's good enough for the first 13/17.

Agreed. And fans' judgment on Escaré's form was also coloured, not unreasonably, by the size of his pay-packet compared to ST.

I also agree that swapping full-backs to accommodate a dummy-half switch is not sustainable; it's fair enough to maybe do that in a pre-season friendly, but I can't see it happening week on week in SL. But we *will* get injuries, and Morgan will get some game-time. I hope Jake Shorrocks does too.