I said 4th or 5th and I stand by it. Injuries may take its toll though.

Let's have a look at the table in three weeks.

Wakefields next three games are Huddersfield away, Leeds home and Saints away

5th at best - a win against Catalans at home next week would set us up nicely (not a given by any means in terms of injuries) but then we have a very tough run of fixtures - Bradford (away), Leeds (home), Saints (away), Warrington (semi), Warrington (home).

6 wins could make our season, 6 defeats could break our season - I'd be happy if we managed 4 wins including the semi, but given our inconsistency and injuries that may be beyond us.

NOt a chance of third without T Smith and more importantly Mcilorum and Lockers..

Lockers has been immense and we only have to look at the celtics game to see how we play without him.. Big loss .......

he is back for the semi..

Agreed, Lockers in a huge loss - been our best player this season by an absolute mile - he seemed to have regained his gamebreaking ability and some of the pace that appeared to have gone with the knee injuries and that added to his undoubted quality / workrate in defence makes him invaluable - the best 13 in the British game at present.

McIllorum is a shame, but an absence that could be accommodated by moving TL to hooker on the interchange, ST to scrum half and giving Gleeson a run at stand off. Added bonus of then giving Pryce a run in the team from the bench, which I think will help him kick on - there were a few positive signs on Friday, especially in his one on one defence which has improved markedly.

T Smith is an enigma, I can't decide whether him being missing is a good thing or a bad thing. He can be unplayable on his day with his range of passing and organisation (i.e, the masterclass at Murrayfield), but can also be appalling and lose games single handedly with poor decision making and terrible defence. Also his presence keeps ST out of the team, which is a major negative.

Class.

Who better then?? Sinfield, purdam, Flannery, westerman,??

Who's better then?? Sinfield, purdam, Flannery, westerman,??

Name one better?
Sinfield - hugely overrated in a good team, less breaks, tackles, tries and try assists than Lockers.
Wilkin - more inconsistent - doesn't have the creative responsibility of Lockers instead feeding off others - better in terms of breaks and tries, poorer in all others facets of the game.
Purdham - if fit, the only likely contender - poor season statistically (no tries, no assists).
Westerman - not in Lockers class yet in any aspect.

I prefere to look at it from the other side of things.

The past few years we have had a weak and poor quins team, who never got in the top 6, and won the odd game to stay up. Surely a club that couldn't have a winning culture.

However this year they started very well, and are in the position they are in because of that good start. So what if they have fallen of the horse at the end? It will take time for them to become a team that can challenge for the top 3/4.

Surely that, coupled with the great start for Cas, KR and others show that these clubs are moving in the right direction on the field??

It would be better for the Club to finish outside the playoffs, as a loss of revenue through dwindling season ticket sales would make IL sit up and take notice, he is a business man and a tight one at that, unlike DW he won't flash the cash, losing large amounts of money on the gates would spur ihim into action IMO, and a serious reshuffle of the team/back room stuff would be just the ticket

I do not think quins were poor at all especially second half, they clearly had their game plan bang on second half but we had the extra man.

By saying that I do think we will beat either Leeds or Saints.

The higher up the table we get, the more confident I will be as we will have momentum, if we won most of our games and finished 3rd or 4th then I am confident we could go to saints or leeds and win getting us through to week 3. I don't think this new play-off system will end up with a leeds v saints final and if there is one team that could do it from outside the top 2 it's us, no matter how poor we have been all season.