Exactly. Increasing levels of desperation for the bottom clubs at the moment. On the other hand an opportunity if other results go our way to take 3rd spot after playing everyone once. Crazy times.

Crazy indeed - and whilst that's happening in the top-8 it's kind of heart-warming to know that Leeds must already be wondering at what point their hopes of competing for the Grand Final might actually die completely.

2nd if things really go our way. Wouldn't write Wakefield off.

Chester's had a good Easter though, certainly. Shackles off and all that.

Ha. As long as we get the win I'm not bothered if we stay in 5th tbh. We just need to keep churning out results and the table will work out eventually.

Spot on, that's the team I would pick. Although I am pretty sure that Ellis picked up a rib injury against Saints so he might be a doubt.

I don't agree with dropping back line players that are doing just fine. They, far more than forwards need to play together consistently to understand each other better. We've had a fair bit of chopping and changingwith only Shaul who has been the fixture.
Dropping Micheals for Talanoa sends out the wrong message and against the grain of playing those in form.
Whilst rightly you could say Talanoa is better getting fast ptb/penalties resulting from that and has more size, he isn't as fast as Micheals, is a far poorer defender in all aspects (and.particularly frail under the high ball) but they both finish equally well. Micheals can play left or right side of the pitch in either wing or centre position too without any bother.

There's really no justification at this moment in to change IMHO

True enough. I think most would agree you get a reasonable read of the competition after 11 rounds. If we lose both the next couple of games we'd still be 6th/7th, but obviously there's a chance to step on as the games in hand unwind. I'm sure this isn't lost on the team so hopefully we can take it.

Two trains of thought for Radford here,

1. Pick players on form i.e. Michaels
2. Pick players suitable for the opposition i.e. Talanoa

On the latter we have a large squad so we should utilise it and rest players when necessary. It's a tough decision to make and if it doesn't work out for us then I'm sure people will in hindsight state the obvious. The Hudds game is huge potential banana skin. Lose and once again we're knocked off balance. Win and it will build on momentum and belief. Just my opinion of course

If you are choosing Talanoa based on the opposition what specifically is that that we need against Hudds that Michaels or indeed Naughton, Lancaster don't offer?
It certainly isnt defusing Brough's high bombs as he has been very iffy under the high ball more often than not.
I don't see us losing due to any one player, Talanoa if picked , which i wouldn't be particularly unhappy with will do fine, it's whether making the change is justifiable and doesn't induce negatives either on or off field

Why change a winning combination? I can't see Radders changing the team to much anyways. They will be opportunities later on in the season for the likes of Talanoa to come back in the side. But for now in my opinion I think we should keep the same team.

so to the opposition. hudds lost a close game to cas today, but looking at the relevant forums it seems that cas were missing 9 players, 7 of which would have been in that team had they been fit. hudds were missing 3 or 4 including a couple with illness. the concensus on their game was that is was very poor with lots of errors and both defences awol - pretty obvious from the score.

we will be going into this game on the back of games against two of the top teams in the league which we won, confidence and standards will be high and as long as we don't get dragged down a level, i can't see us losing. of course FC being FC, this could well happen as it has done so many times before. i really can't see anderson raising the efforts of the hudds team, if he could he surely would have done it by now, so whether we win or lose will be purely down to us. this might sound arrogant but we've done well in recent weeks and have earned the right to be arrogant. all successful teams need to have an air of arrogance and confidence - just not too much!