Agreed. And Shorrocks could do with a break, more than most. Saying that, Lam will probably play him at dummy-half again...

Glad Powell's missing out.
Sam has left the field with a head injury two matches out of the last three and subsequently failed both H.I.A tests. Over 16 days.
That's too much to ignore and I do hope his missing the game is due to looking after his medical welfare.

I think it will be far closer than is being suggested on here. We don't tend to hammer anyone, let alone a team that defends well against relatively structured play like Wigan.

No Farrell?

If Saints score early it could well be a rout.

I think a couple of people have mentioned that it’s important for Wigan to start strongly and I couldn’t agree more.

Suspect a lot of the field work has been done in wet and windy conditions this week and wondering which team will benefit most if we get wet conditions on Friday?

Think Powell should miss out. Duty of care, remember his bad concussion week 1 against Wire at home last year?

Think Bateman will play, involved in all the pre match media etc.

Think O’Neill and Burrouh need to play to cover 9 (maybe we could get away with Shorrocks covering for 25 minutes actually).

If Hastings is at 9 I’ll cry. He’ll play well there no doubt (he’d play well at prop if needed) but he needs to be in the halves.

Watch a video of the Saints v Castleford game.

As Punch would say, "That's the way to do it"

Difference being of course. With a Wane team you know the team is guaranteed to be in their faces, defend like trojans and make it difficult for the opposition. But we have Lam........ and I haven't got a clue what goes on when I watch. No cohesion, no guidance and no clue what they are supposed to do.

get them down to 12 men?

Need to focus on the basics first and foremost to give ourselves a chance:

1 - Win the early possession game
2 - Not to concede penalties in stupid areas that would allow Saints to get in the front foot
3 - Slow the POTB down to allow defence to properly reset
4 - Forwards running in pairs
5 - More use of dummy/decoy runners rather than catch and pass from 9 to 7 to 6 (It doesn't work)

Chatter on Twitter is that Shorrocks starts at 9

so would a carboard cut out.....at least it wouldnt give away 3 silly penalties a match