I find that a strange move from Salford. I thought they'd have gone all out for a home semi final. They'll be banking on Leigh beating Saints now or they'll be coming to us in the playoffs.

Wigan I guess now have the option to rest some players themselves. Certainly wouldn't be playing Thompson, Faz or Wardle. Maybe French, Field and Smith could do with the game time.

Ultimately well be going into the playoffs off the back of two low intensity games and a week off which has both pros and cons.

Wigan already named their squad though so unless they want to be giving up interchanges they can only leave 4 out.

Plus with a week off next week anyway I assume Peet would be happy for most of them to ply. Maybe rest Ellis as he loves a ban!

Maybe they fancy it

Bar one of the biggest shocks in Rugby League history, that is the LLS in the bag. I doubt they'll be happy over Hull way and no doubt rugby league social media will have this as our fault.

No real point is resting anyone unless they're struggling with injury. We'll have a couple of weeks to get over head knocks and as long as they keep their discipline, it'll be good to get all of the players a run out. You don't want to go in to a play off semi with some players having had 3 weeks off.

Hope you didn't

Psychologically it's smart though. If they end up beating you in the play-offs, they'll be coming back to us with a team that "didn't get beat by them 2 weeks ago".

In East Hull maybe, but here in West Hull.....hilarious!

I’d rest Wardle, Thompson and Havard bring in Eckerlsey Walters and Hill.

Keeps the players one injury away from being in the team involved and keeps 3 key players away from injury or suspension.

Shame our epic game with HKR wasn’t this week.

To win the LLS after beating Penrith, winning at Wembley and missing some much game time from our 1, 6, 7 and 9 is an outstanding achievement.

5 straight trophies.

I go into the playoffs very confident.

Analysing the defeats this year

Saints GF (great battle in which we looked to begin to get on top before the red)

Hull KR (second best team in the league, away from home, watching that game back we still had a lot of chances)

Hull away (No Field or French, bad defeat but showed character to nearly pinch it)

Wire home (No Field or French, very good team who came with a point to prove, we also played with Farrell at Hooker for the majority of the second half)

Leeds away (3rd game in 10 days, no French)

Very very good regular season.

Hope we can back it up in the playoffs.

Personally, I don't think naming a reserve team is in the spirit of the game but they are not the first to do it!

Definitely. Salford were +28.5 with B365 and I was sorely tempted but glad I didn't bother now.

Occasionally they do get it wrong and you can make easy money though. I remember twice over the last few years that Saints have played London and Castleford and told everyone days before the squads were announced that players would be rested. The bookies didn't react in time and everyone was lumping on London and Cas at +30 ish. I know a few fans that bet on the outright result.

We lost both games.

It'd be tempting to be a bit trigger happy with making changes looking at Salford's team, but I don't think you can mess about with team selection this close to knock out rugby.

At a maximum, I'd give Byrne bigger minutes to let him carry on from last week and bring in Walters.

Wouldn't rest anyone, our strengths this season has been to play our strongest team where we can, we've not really hit our straps since just after the Wembley win. Going into the playoffs with confidence would really give us that boost.

I'd limit the minutes of Thompson, Havard and Ellis and get plenty in to Byrne, Dupree and Mago but keep a full team. Mago really seems to benefit from long spells over the following weeks and with a week off next week, it would be handy to get 50/60 minutes in to him.