Whilst there were a few sub par performances today players like Farrell and Smith have clearly earned the right to be considered undroppable.

I expect after today Williams is still in poll position to start the season at stand off but Rocky in my opinion offers us much more not least because of the pace he has. Even without the pace he took control of the game and could be seen clearly bossing the team around the pitch.

I think another performance where he outshines Williams in the friendlies and he could very well play himself into the starting team.

Williams I really am not sure about, he just seems to be missing something for me. When I have seen him in the juniors he looks different class but that is not transferring through to First Team level, where he looks a little out of his depth\lethargic.

As I said earlier I think he is still favourite to start the season at 6 but I hope Hampshire has given Wane something to think about and I would like to see him get some game time in the halves with Smith before the Widnes fixture.

Seen him play twice both times in the fixture against
Leigh. Rate him as probably one of the most talented lads iI have seen in years. If he doesdoesn't start for you at either 6 or 1 it's a joke. Probably an outside chance for England shirt if he gets a chance. Excellent player.

I think he's very inconsistent. To be fair he was mostly playing hooker/interchange hooker last year so maybe he needs some games at 6 to get into it.

But I agree Hampshire is probably our best bet for the start of the season.

I just hope Wane see's Hampshire as a realistic option at 6 because a lot of the time he looks like he see's him as a back up full back and nothing else.

He looked all at sea at fullback today and then when he moved to stand off he looked comfortable and was outstanding. I'd start him at 6 next Sunday and give him the chance to make the spot his for our first league game.

In defence of Williams, he's played 40 minutes of a pre-season friendly. Last year he put in some very good performances which has earned him the number 6 shirt. He's had eye catching performances. He had a few quiet games last year when he looked tired but it's worth remembering that he was a halfback in the U19's making probably around 10 tackles per game against teenagers going on to play hooker at Super League level making anything up to 40 tackles in games facing some pretty tough forwards. That's not an easy thing to do. It will take a lot out of a young player.

It's never a certainty how young players will progress. He's only 20. It's possible that he might have a quiet season this year after his breakthrough year, which is what happens to many young players. It might turn out that it doesn't work for him and he's better off on loan. We have enough options to allow that. 2016 could be his year. We can't place too much pressure on young players to be the finished article so early. He's a phenomenally talented player so he's got a good chance of making it. He might end up spending another season playing at hooker if Hampshire or Powell play well.

Hampshire is a phenomenal talent so it's not surprising for him to play well. He's definitely better in the halves. He's never had a single completely convincing game at fullback at Super League or U19's level. He's best with his hands on the ball as much as possible so hopefully he'll get another chance in the halves. Defence is the only issue but that will get tested more against Saints (as he'll surely be played in the halves again).

There are so many talented young halfbacks at the club at the moment that there's no need to worry too much if a player has a bad game or is inconsistent. It happens to most young players. So many of them will have a quiet season at some point in their early development. The ones that don't are often the ones that become really special talents.

Powell also shouldn't be overlooked. He's only been able to show brief glimpses of what he's capable of but a few good performances could make him the starting stand off and a bit of consistency is all he needed. Injury cost him last year after playing his way into the WCC squad and I don't think he fully recovered from that injury, which will have halted his progress somewhat.

Hampshire showed for a brief 20 min today why he is the best halfback prospect Wigan have had for years, when it was Smith and Williams in the first half they seemed to be so devoid of ideas.
Williams seemed a bit lost in what he was supposed to do and playing with Smith seemed to stifle him, I say that because Smith is so much of a close to the ruck type of player he almost at times seems to be playing as a second hooker, whilst all Williams career in junior rugby as been playing in partnership with Hampshire in a free running game.
Going back to Hampshire today showed that he is like chalk and cheese when playing fullback as against halfback, we have to remember that he is a Yorkshire lad and if Wane keeps insisting that he is a successor to Bowen at fullback and that is the position he plays in before all others he may rebel against it.
I would rather see Manfredi (or Burgess) given a chance at fullback before take the risk of losing Hampshire.

I'm glad others are cottoning onto this now. Rocky is too good to leave out this season. Get him at 6 with Williams and Powell battling over the bench hooker spot. Against the lower sides we can give Rocky more time at FB with a view to him taking over there in 2016 just as S.Tomkins did

It's strange but we looked better with a #6, #7 and #9 of Hampshire, Shorrocks and L Tomkins than Williams, Green and McIlorum. However to be fair to Williams I believe he has been carrying a bit of a thigh injury and certainly I've never seen him so unwilling to run the ball as he was today.
Hampshires pace is frightening, but today he was bossing the midfield and telling other players where to go, we certainly missed him when he went off.

On that point the team for last 10 -15 minutes was Tierney, Charnley, Burgess, Gildart, Manfredi, Doran, Shorrocks, Sutton, L Tomkins, Greenwood, C Farrell, Lever and Bateman. That's a very young side.

Grimmy, I have been saying this for the last 12 months whilst others have been going along with Wane and agreeing that by easing Hampshire in at fullback we will have a ready made replacement when Bowen goes.
Hampshire is the most exiting talent at halfback I have seen emerge at Wigan since I started watching Wigan in 1953/54.

Footnote, I say halfback because in the old game I just wonder which position he would have been better at, scrum half of standoff.
Years ago the scrum half was considered to be the creative player (finding gaps and putting supporting through)and the standoff was the one with the pace, the best scrum half I saw at putting players through or making a decision to go himself was Alex Murphy. I am not saying that Hampshire is an Alex Murphy but he shows traits of being able to play either position. The trouble is I am talking about the old days when RL was such a different game.

You guys were also up against a good Leyth side as well.

What was the score ?

Leigh 18, Wigan 14

Thought Rocky Hampshire was your best player today. Friendlies are hard to judge but what did you make of Leigh? We had 5/6 first teamers missing ourselves but I thought our pack matched yours. Good tough game all in all.

Bugga all between FT and FT, hope u win the gf and we can have 2 huge fixtures 2016

I was always in the Rocky at 1 camp, effectively ST mkII, but after today he may well be our best option at 6. My only worry about Hampshire is if he's targetted in defence he may struggle whereas Powell and Williams have proved they're comfortable making 30+ tackles a game. I've always thought Williams is the best interchange 9 option, as he offers something different as a running option whereas Powell and Logan are just distributors but less effective than McIlorum and without the tough defence. Back-up FB is a worry because Hampshire is dodgy at best under the high ball and Tierney is a complete liability.

Anyone know when Sarg and Gelling are meant to be back? It would be good to go into the Saints friendly with a first-choice backline.