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.

Weve got a 16 day gap hopefully. to our next game anyway so should select the best side and keep team consistentcy

Full strength, no messing around. Need to keep the momentum going and keep building combinations. They get a week off next week anyway.

Very arrogant from Salford. In some ways I can understand they are protecting against injuries and/or bans and they may well lose with a full strength team.

However its clear that they are expecting Leigh to beat us so they will still be at home. If we do beat Leigh then we will be at H to Salford and I would be very confident now with players back (unless we get more injuries or bans against Leigh)

It's also completely ruined tomorrrow nights game as a contest.

I don't think it's arrogant at all, I think they just acknowledge they have a small squad and they desperately need their best players fit, fresh and available for the play offs. Also, home advantage to Salford probably isn't quite as big as it would be for some clubs. If they play Leigh at home, it's likely as many, if not more Leigh fans would be in the ground.

I also saw a theory around the financial aspect and how gate receipts are split 3 ways in the play offs (both clubs and the RFL). If that is the case, Salford will financially be better off from going away to Saints and splitting a gate of 10,000, than they would be playing at home and splitting a 5,000 gate. If money is as tight as they like to let everyone know, then there may be a couple of reasons at play as to why a home play off isn't the be all and end all for them.

But what are the chances they would've beaten us anyway? We hardly ever lose at home and have basically a full team to pick from and the LLS to win.

I do think you would beat them fairly easily at your place. Their away form is pretty bad, whereas their home form is (I think) 2nd best in the league after ours. All it takes is a couple of bans/injuries to your key players this weekend though and it evens things up.

I really hope Leigh win and make the play offs, just for the quality of that opening week of play off games. Fixtures between Wire and Saints and Salford and Leigh look far better and far more competitive than Wire and Catalans and Saints and Salford. If it's the latter, I reckon Wire will put 40+ on Catalans and Saints will get over Salford reasonably comfortably.