No halfback in the world would have been able to play on the back of that Salford preformence. They were 22-0 down after 15-20 mins and had hardly touched the ball.......not exactly easy to shine as a halfback is it?

I remember people saying Sam Tomkins had a quiet game at Leeds earlier in the season when we where on the end of something similar to what Salford got tonight and at the time i said the same thing about Sam.

Mylers all class.

When theyt were attacking our line he showed some flashes of brilliance and unpredictability. Ball in hand he was throwing some great dummies and looking for that money ball. Unfortunately, he hasn't got the players around him to play to his full potential.

Going to be a cracking player. A little overated at the moment, but easily has the potential to be #7 for England for 10yrs.

Richie Myler - Feka and Leuluai BOOM!!

A myler / tomkins partnership would be interesting playing the french

Not going to happen though. Smith has already stated he will be going as a 19th man without the intention of playing him. Made the decision to "rest" him tonight all the more strange in my opinion.

No it didnt. Lets not look for something that isn't there.

Smith & Tommy will play together next week - it made sense to play them together tonight as well so we have a bit of cohesion next week.

Bench spot? or do you not advocate him as a first 17 player? I do not think he should have started but worth a place on the bench, add to this fact we are playing the worst team in the history of SL next week did he really need "resting". It simply means the week after he will have had the best part of 3 weeks without any game time.

I wouldn't have had a problem with him on the bench, but Riddell needs games and McIllorum deserves his spot and it will help the continuity next week.

No we aren't - Halifax Blue Sox hold that crown.

He wasn't "rested" he wasn't selected because he wasn't going to play next week.

I really can't understand what point your making beyond having a pop at Noble.

Sam Tomkins is one of the few payers we have who we can bring on to offer something different and at times this season our attack has reverted to being one dimensional.

Smith went off the boil tonight which is hardly surprising given he was away on family business down under so won't have been training or playing with the team.

So therefore it made even less sense to leave Sam T out as it was likely Smith would tire.

A bench spot for Sam T and one less prop would have been a much better selection from Noble IMO for this reason alone.

Salford have a poor pack and with Hansen on the bench able to fill in at prop as well we were hardly in danger of losing the forward battle.

Is this, whick I feel think a well reasoned argument that Noble made a mistake, "having a pop" at Noble? No doubt someone will think so but I'd like to think it was a reasoned argument that he made a selection error in not having cover for a player who was likely to tire.

No need to do the half back/hooker merry go round when Sam T came on. Just a straight swap for Smith.

Dave

All the more important for Smith to play and see the game through then as Sam isn't about next week.

He was either dropped or rested tonight. The official line from Wigan is he was rested due to his involvement next week with England. Tony Smith has said there is 1 player who will not play next week and is there for the experience and named Tomkins as that player.

We have entered into a pretty easy spell regards fixtures which even in our current state we should win. In my opinion Tomkins deserves his spot over McIllorum on form in our strongest 17. As it stands it will be a month between first team games for him, if selected in our next game after Celtic, and the fixtures pick up in quality again with Sam our main strike back off the bench a month without first team, or any for that matter rugby.

He may get half a game in the reserves today.

Wigan are down to 15 fit players at that level and the academy are also playing away at Salford, so they can't use many of them.

To be honest a three week break is probably ideal for Sam, but as I said in the thread about the 19 for last nights game I would have had him in the team in place of McIlorum.