I bl00dy hope so.

Wayne Bennett deemed Bateman one of the two best English centres, so why not?

Sorry but Leuluai's kicking is dreadful. I am speculating here, but I am not sure his distance vision is great. He does seem to squint IMHO.Even when my old Dad was alive (I lost him in 2014), both he and I thought his kicking was far too often to an opposition player and not finding the gaps. Tackling he does often make big hits and he does scoot at times at the defence. But kicking ? No sorry don't agree.

he was wrong

Hello wigan fans.I did not think M.M. played well when he came back late in the season,but I am now pleased that we have signed him. Ganson last year looked like one of the best prospects I have seen for a long time,but of course superleague is a different kettle of fish.

It’s a long season, we will no doubt try out different combinations and see what works best. I have faith in Tomkins at 6, his broken play running doesn’t seem to be what it was from FB but he’s still one of our best players and getting him on the ball more should work well. I’m guessing we will continue to play split halves with Williams staying on the left and Tomkins on the right as Tomkins’ left to right passing is a lot better.

Is this correct of Sam going to number 6 or is it just wishful thinking ? I have always thought he was wasted at FB and more so when he lost his pace. Making a break in the halves is much closer to the opposition's try line than all the way from a FB's positioning. Plus his 'organising' as he can read a game, would be better utilised in an half back position.

I think it’s likely with the comments on McIlorum’s departure of “we have 2 good hookers in Leuluai and Powell plus Ganson”.

Plus if we go with Williams and Leuluai again we’ll probably be bottom 4.

If Williams plays scrum half with Sam at stand off, then I’d expect them to be the England half backs against New Zealand at the end of the season.

Gut feeling Sam will still be FB come seasons start..we shall see though.

Mine also.

Him coming out and staying he wants to stay there is a pretty big indicator for me and Wane has spoken quite a bit about Escare maybe being used either at six or from the bench.

Interesting comments from Sam is that. Got to admit when him and Eastmond were paired together as young kids they frightened the Aussies 10 fold and we thought we had a pairing for years to come. I was a very big advocate of what Sam actually produced down under, his time has been wrongly in my opinion scrutinised by idiot fans who dont warch rugby but hate wigan, and really feel a team as unpredictable as the Warriors were the worst option for him given their lack of structure.

What I am getting at is trying to say this isn't a trolling attempt with what I am about to say next, when he came back from injury in the games I saw he seemed to take a long while to have any contact in the tackle (obviously coming back from an injury there were rumours would end his career won't help), but is that an attempt to keep himself out of the firing line knowing you have wingers who work so hard for the team he can drop the ball onto?

Assuming you are referring to kick returns, he was already doing that before he went to NZ. I think it's probably because:

A - Given his size, he is less likely to win the collision and get a quick PTB to start the set off well
B - In that situation, the opposition know he won't pass, and there won't be gaps for him to step through, so they basically get a free shot at one our best players if he returns the ball. If they give a penalty away, who cares? It's deep in our half, worth it to intimidate him.

I get why it annoys people, but I think it's the right call, use players to their strengths.

I think that you may be correct although personally I would love to see ST at 6 as he has for me a natural RL brain and we need someone in the middle with that capability because SOL is likely to be off the pitch more than he is on it and without someone like him on the pitch for 80 minutes we are truly useless.

I have never seen Escare play 6 so I cannot comment on his capabilities with ball in hand however, I think he his capable of having a good kicking game so this maybe part of the thinking of playing him at 6.

My worry is that we may have Powell & Williams in the halves or god forbid Williams & TL as per last season.

MM leaving weakens the tackling strength in the middle as we saw last year so much. Everyone moaning about him and SOL going off at the same time but now people dont seem to be bothered about it...weird