And a little off topic but couldn't find a relevant thread...

Lees wins his appeal, downgraded to a Grade A and fine only.

Williams appeal was deemed as frivolous and they've increased his ban from 1 to 2 games. The England captain, just before a Test Series. You couldn't make it up. Only in Rugby League.

You are right before a test series the Captain of England is banned then increased,no you couldnt make that up.
Only in our world of RL!!

It's got to be the same 17 as last week for me.

Two sides who want complete polar opposite styles of games. Catalans will want an attritional, stop-start game like at Magic and last week's semi. Whereas we'll want to keep the ball in play as much as possible.

The weather looks ok for the type of game we want so far (fingers crossed!). I can see us winning convincingly, but I've been wrong before.

Absolutely f%&^*&g baffling. Trying to build our national side to compete at the very highest level with a coaching setup that most have more confidence in than any other for a very long time, and our own game come up with absolute pelters like this. I'm not even 100% what the initial ban was for...if it was the late hit (where the passer was right at the line - top half play in my book) then it shouldn't have even been a penalty.

Be interesting to see how many times Lees has been called up by the Disciplinary this year.
Wrt Williams I think Smith and Lomax should be getting the nod for the forthcoming internationals.
Unless of course Lomax has been playing with an injury and needs an op again.
Looking forward to the game this Saturday and think you will edge it by 8.
Best 2 teams in the league over the season.

Turning to the game itself, what do we think?

Form and recent performances all push towards a 10 to 20 point semi comfortable win but I doubt that will be the case.

I fancy our chances providing we are disciplined both with and without the ball. I suspect Catalan will try and spoil a bit so we can’t fall for that tactic.

Best description would be cautiously optimistic but they are the worst ones when you end up losing.

Please not sick note Lomax. We’re moving away from the old bring in the new. I don’t give a toss what happens in these games, blood someone new

I'm not sure Lomax is the way to go either. Wane may have gone off him anyway due to his World Cup decision. The problem is England badly lack depth in the playmaking positions - both at halfback and fullback.

Harry Smith will probably play - alongside him I don't see many other options outside Lewis Dodd. Lewis and Pryce [imay[/i be options in the future but not now. Williams was poor in 2022 but had a great World Cup - Wane may feel he can get a similar improvement from Dodd.

I would go Lewis personally, a halfback combo of Smith and Dodd just seems too similar to work and lacking a creative edge.

Of course, Williams would be my first choice to partner Smith by a landslide but the RFL appear to be an organisation of masochist's so that is no longer possible until the 3rd test when the series could be mathematically over anyway. I read Stu's original post hours ago and i am still shocked!

Yeah, Williams and Smith would be the ideal pairing - one an instinctive "eyes up" off the cuff player and one more controlling with a good kicking game.

Not sure who I would bring in to replace Williams for the first two. Welsby would be ideal but then who plays at FB?

Lomax has been playing busted again for weeks with a whole host of knocks and given his age and the fact that Wane is trying to build a team long-term then he's not the answer.

A strong argument could be made for a trio of Tomkins, Welsby, and Smith as the 3. Come to think of it, that's very strong. Assuming Tomkins is still available for International selection? A few heads will fall off from the "Wane picks all his mates" brigade, but he has proven as recently as last weekend that he is still more than capable of coming up with big plays.

Tomkins is retiring after Saturday.

Looking at the 40 man training squad the options for 1, 6 & 7 are:

Jordan Abdull
Lewis Dodd
Mikey Lewis
Harry Smith
Jonny Lomax
Jack Welsby
George Williams

As Williams is suspended and Abdull hasn’t really played there’s not a lot of options.

I think we should be looking to the future so should rule Lomax out. I don’t think Smith and Dodd are a good combo. I’d probably go for either Mikey Lewis or Welsby to 6 and Ash Handley to 1.

I'm guessing the "big news" is this Havard is back.

You do wonder if he could be persuaded, one last outing and favour for his good mate Wane, although i do feel it would be unfair to ask.

As you say, Welsby to 6 would be an ideal scenario but if not Tomkins or Welsby i have no idea who would play fullback to a high enough standard.

I was saying to a mate yesterday how frustrating the whole Williams situation is, we have one chance a year (sometimes not even that!) to play some good quality international games against worthy opposition and with our best side out there. It is all well and good nilling France mid season with half of what would be a realistic test team for England, and hopefully in a few years France can start to put up some stronger opposition but that is currently not the case.

This Tonga series is exactly the sort of game we need to be going full throttle into and having a player that is currently so pivital to our international team serving a ban for 2/3rds of the test is really going to put a strain on our practice for the World Cup.

All the other Pacific based teams will be competing in the Pacific Championships. Say that these matches are successful and the Pacific teams make it a yearly competition, we could very easily find ourselves in the scenario of having nobody of note to play going forward as all the Pacific teams (including Tonga) don't see a reason to travel all the way to England when they can play in a top level competition on their own doorstep.

There is a genuine chance that this series could be the only one we get of substance before the next World Cup, and having our captain and one of our key (and most experienced) players guarenteed to miss the majority because he is serving a ban that has now been doubled is a travesty, not to mention one of our own creating which just adds to the frustration.