I think finding faults is fine but it's got to be realistic. His form has gone downhill very recently but in the main he's been excellent this season. He's nowhere near world class yet but he could be one day (although that becomes far less likely at Hull). What he is at the moment is our best prop along with Flower and one of the best in the league and if his mind is on the job we'd be crazy to cut our nose off and leave him rotting at Workington.

I'd go with:-

Matty Bowen

Dom Manfredi
Jack Hughes
Anthony Gelling
Joe Burgess

Dan Sarginson
Matty Smith

Gil Dudson
Michael McIlorum
Dom Crosby
Liam Farrell
John Bateman
Sean O'Loughlin

Bench:
Ben Flower
George Williams
Greg Burke
Jordon James

Hampshire & Sutton to miss out.

Looks like it's going to be:

Bowen

Manfredi
Sarginson
Gelling
Burgess

Williams
Smith

Dudson
McIlorum
Crosby
Bateman
Farrell
O'Loughlin

Hampshire
Sutton
Flower
Burke

Williams is at 6. Wane has confirmed it in the WEP.

Money.

It's probably the correct decision tbh. I'm not really a fan of putting a player on the bench where it means you need to start shifting half backs around to accommodate them, but Williams has shown he is a tough defender and we will need to keep it tight in the opening exchanges.

Not too worried who plays 6 as both are super young players.
My concern is who will play left centre. Sargy was played there in the game at their place and we were 16-0 down in as many minutes all scored down our left defence. Didn't improve too much either as they had two disallowed tries down our left defence in the second half.
Hopefully Waney will have it sorted, if he's not we could be in big trouble.
We have IMO better players and are a better team than Cas, Powell is a good coach and if we have any vulnerabilies then he'll find them.
We have to be careful but are more than capable of winning this one.

Does anyone else feel that we under-utilise Hampshire? Out of all the younger players he's the one who I expect the biggest things from, yet we seem very hesitant to give him a run of games at either 1 or 6. I had thought Green's injury may provide him with this opportunity. He looked very dangerous when he came on against Huddersfield

He was a bit unlucky to be injured at the same time Bowen was (when we played Hull), but on the whole I think we've used him pretty well. I think SW has earmarked him to take over at fullback, he's started 4 games there this season and played 2 off the bench. The coaching staff clearly think that Powell and Williams are further on in their development, and physically they both definitely are, which probably means Wane is more likely to throw them in when we need cover in the halves.

Looking over the next couple of months I can see Hampshire getting quite a few games, we've got the midweek game against Widnes to think about, plus Wakefield away followed by a short turnaround to Saints at home. Wouldn't surprise me if Bowen is rested for a few of them and Hampshire ends up playing 4 or 5 games at fullback, particularly if we manage to get past this weekend and we have a Cup semi to think about.

I always expected him to end up playing 15 or so games this season and I still think that will be the case.

The club needs to manage this sort of thing a whole lot better than it seems to be doing.

Players leave for whatever reasons. I certainly don't like it when they break contracts but Wigan depriving themselves of their services for the rest of the season because they are going is pure stupidity.

It's just unprofessional to drop them because they are going. The man-management needs looking at because with a players future settled thus their minds not distracted by contract negotiations, wherever it is, the club still ought to be able to get them to perform and be an asset to the side.

If instead they put them on the naughty step, why should they bother?

Other teams seem to manage players leaving without going into a sulk. Leeds are playing JJB and have not packed him off to Hunslet.

Not from Wigan's point of view.

So there should be no difference in how the club treats them. Taylor has been our best prop and so to pack him off to Cumbria if its being done because he asked to leave is petty and unprofessional.

Here's a curved ball. Perhaps Taylor looked fed up after the Hudds game because he's been told he was being sold and he doesn't want to leave

Pearson comes in with an offer, IL sees the ££££ signs and another chance to cash in. ?

The problem with Sam Tomkins last year was that he seemed to lose interest part way through the season and coupled with protracted mystery illness we did not see the best of him. He wasn't being criticised for leaving, he was being criticised because of a lack of form. As the French say he wasn't wetting his shirt.

How dare you say that aren't you aware criticising Sam is a hanging offence

FWIW I agree with all of your post