Just a thought, but with the lad being so young, is he being saved for the games that really matter?

ie the latter end of the season when, if he was playing every week now, he could be burnt out?

Or is Noble playing with his mind, making sure that next time he is in the squad he will have a stormer and send a clear message to BN saying "drop me at your peril"

I'm just struggling for reasons for SA to be dropped if I'm honest, Roberts, alright, hes a proven player, but not at wigan. Vealiki was a proven player and that turned out well!

He got injured at Edinbrugh.

Read it somewhere and iirc is out for a couple of weeks.

No!

I would suggest he's picked that team as "HE" thinks that is His best chance of winning that game!

End of!

Not kidding, he's been my bargain buy of the year in Fantasy League. Any idea how long he's out for?

Games that really matter? Every game matters!

If we beat you at the weekend then your challange cup run is over...every game in the cup is important!

100% correct.
I couldn't have put it better myself.

We've complained too long about having a paper thin squad. We now have depth and competition for places.

I'm looking forward to the Saints game at Orrell on Friday, to look at the next batch of challengers, because that will show how far we are moving as a club.

Strength throughout the club will be the key to success over the next few years.

Waiting for scans to come back but it seems like it will be a couple of weeks at best!

Correct, not one player has a bad game.

what a load of rubbish so what if we beat saints last week ainscough has earned his place in the quad by a mile he keep s saying he needs work on some areas so does half the so called senior players

Dropping Ainscough for the first Wakefield game was a shocking call from Noble in my opinion at the time but due to circumstance he played.

Noble picked the right team last week despite the raised eyebrow from myself and others and he should stick with the same players in the backs as nobody deserves to be dropped. I would though bring Ridell back into the team at the expense of MM, its a tough call but Wakefield are very good around the ruck and i think his experience and delivery in that department tip the balance his way.

I do hope though that if/when Roberts, Phelps, and Richards (although because of his kicking less so) have a poor to average game they are dealt with in the same way as Ainscough has been and are dropped untill they get there chance again due to poor form of injury.

Careful. That sort of tone links you with the 'Ainscough should be in at any cost because he's a Wiganer' brigade.

Personally, I think he should be in too. But I can see why he isn't.

In recent years, we really have been lulled into thinking that Wigan born players should come first, even at the expense of a carefully thought-out game plan (as was shown against Saints). Perhaps we - and I include myself in this - ought to look at the bigger picture. Having a large squad, with everyone keen to get selected is always a good thing - but it produces casualties too. Harsh, but it's a fact of life in professional team sport.

Jonh,
I agree. I would bring Riddell back in. On your last point, I think Noble has been pretty fair this year in that Smith, Coley and Roberts have all been left out at certain stages. We're fortunate in that we do have strength in depth at the moment, so players should be dropped if they don't perform or rested if necessary.

How was your head on Saturday morning.

Spot on - I like the ruthlessness of what's happening recently with team selection and I do respect Noble enormously for having the guts to go with his own instincts instead of following what almost everybody else wants and expects.

As I said previously, I don't think the team should be changed.

However, Noble got it right last week after suprisingly leaving Ainscough out and many anti-Noble supporters will probably struggle to acknowledge that.

What I can't understand, is that last week we played some fantastic Rugby League and performances like that won't happen happen every week, so why change the squad?

If it's to adapt to new opposition then fair enough, but this obviously isn't the case as if it was, we'd surely play a winger who scored four tries against the same opposition just two weeks ago?

I suppose on paper, the starting squad can still stay exactly the same but it's unlikely.