Guess a lot will depend on who’s fit or not, but assuming everyone’s fit gigot has to play in front of walker and max. No ones played for 3 months so from fit squad am sure Chester will pick what he thinks is team most
Likely to win. Realistically for me it’s all about finding the best team before we play Catalan in the cup.

I like jowitt and walker and am all for local talent - all else being equal but other than consistency am struggling to see in which areas he’s not better than the incumbent.

I think I agree. The form before lockdown can't really be taken as a given for the start. It will all depend how they come back from their own training.

The young lads might have a better chance to be honest. They are more likely to recover their fitness quicker. But who knows, they may have been on the booze while the old guys were ripping into the weights. We'll soon find out.

If they train like Thompson did in his hotel room preparing for his NRL debut they'll be fine.

Will be great to see Dave back

Let’s hope we can start off from where we were in 2018

Yeh ! Lets hope he's not half hearted.

Assume you’re joking? Can’t say I’ve ever seen Dave give anything but 100% for us

He’s our talisman

So tough to pick a team. I don’t envy CC.

FWIW here’s who I’d go with.

Gigot
Johnstone
Tupou
Lynn
Kaye
Miller
Hampshire

Tangata
J.Wood
Orona
Ashurst
Kalepi
Westerman

Fifita
Navarette
K.Wood
Pitts

Some tough omissions but that for me is our best (on paper) starting 17.

I agree that Dave should start from the bench - he's an impact player. Koppy has to play, so for me Tangata drops to bench in pace of Navartte.
I hope Gigot does it for you guys putting him straight in at FB.- Did wesign him for that position? If so I'd have kept the money in my back pocket ,when we have at least three others who are very capable in that position!

Naverette was our best prop by some way before lock down. He’s was definitely a pleasant surprise, hope he keeps it up.

I liked Navarette also. After a shaky start he started to prove himself. I'd like him to be here for the long term.

Is he actually training ?

He's on the photos released last week during the group training session. It was only a "Still" so maybe he was just chatting alongside Arona??

Gigot would be cover for one or two back positions for your side, I'd have thought?
It will be interesting to see how teams go with what would be fully fit (or near to it as possible) squad. Looking forward to some competitive games in the opening weeks.

For me the younger lads should play if they are fit as anybody else Alex,Jordan and especially Max , I think we overlook Max far too much as he's improving all the time but we'll see what formation Chris decides on next week can't wait.

I think he needs to find his strongest settled squad ASAP, yes we need to try the younger players at times, but while ever we’re in the CC, we need to get the strongest team on the pitch. I think the top 5/6 teams will be chasing the grand final, let Trinity chase the CC.

Did Hampshire return to training?