RA has been very loyal to his players but I think now it is time to have a re think. Danny Orr and Chase will be sleeping very soundly at the thought of coming up against Smith and John. With this in mind I would play Cockayne at 7 and Mathers at 6. Cockayne has been our best player and he would give Orr nightmares. Mathers would give us something we have not seen all season, a 6 that will move forward and take the line on. So my team for Saturday, presuming that we cannot get Ellis back from Fev, would be :

Sykes

Mellers
Collis
Kirmond
Fox

Mathers
Cockayne

Amor
Wildie
Raleigh
Southern
Washbrook
Aiton

James
Lauititi
Marinarno
Walshaw

Wheres the kicking game coming from?

Leave Smith at 7 and maybe consider Sykes at 6 as an option?? Not a great one but an option.

Too risky to change both halfbacks in that way. If we were to go with Cockayne at scrum half then shift Smith to stand off to offer the organisation needed.

That actually sounds quite sensible - both players have a style that could potentially complement each other; Cockayne is very direct and seems fearless around the collision, whereas Smith is better at organising plays and has an (intermittently) excellent passing game.

I'd stick Walshaw on the wing to replace Cockayne - he's a massive human and difficult to stop - and he needs game time.

Tell me your joking - right ?

I dont think the term " Nightmare" is used in the context that he would outclass Orr in terms of skill in that position but in the context of he is a real handful, Agressive, a tough Player, Rattles a few cages and generally not a nice player to play against. And thats the reason he will cause orr a few problems

for a moment i thought it was April 1st, crikey we are feeling desperate if the OP is serious

Correct and pretty obvious I'd have thought.

That is a more realistic description, but what is hard to understand (and I obviously don't watch John & Smith on a regular basis) is why would you play someone out of position (Ben) when you have the aforementioned half-backs fully match fit and in the process of learning conbinations together ?

Il Let somebody else answer that one

Because we had hoped by now they may have started to show signs of improvement.

What you are failing to grasp here though ( as has been pointed out on many occasions by my fellow B&W's) is that RA doesn't do a plan B, when other people ( mostly fans I admit) can see where the problem lies and can provide possible solutions, RA just keeps on ploughing the same furrow regardless, which in time just leads to frustration and alienation of said fans.
I know you will tell me to p**s off and mind my own, but we know what you are going through and I genuinely sympathise with your frustrations. Good luck for the weekend.

We could go always recall James and drop Johnson to accomodate him, thus going with three props again.