Think it will be close and certainly no gimme. But will take any win. It's about getting the 2 points

Salford beating Catalans today leaves them only 2 points behind us with a much better points difference thanks to our hammering at Wigan.

Massive game for us on Friday.

Don’t disagree, feel it will be a very difficult game and one we will fail to get anything from. In terms of creativity in the halves we have very little and our line speed & ptb is so slow. We need more from 6,7 & 9 than we have been getting. Radford will certainly have Cas up for it where as I just don’t see Hodgson doing likewise with us.
I know we can up against a very good Wigan performance with a very depleted squad but even so we never looked like getting anywhere near their line even if we’d played all weekend. We look gone mentally yet again when other teams seem to galvanise we just crumble.
I’ll take any win ugly or otherwise but just can’t see it.

With Sao and Evans back and hopefully Satae fit at least we l have some go forward to work with.

Wynne comes back In at centre, I'd also play Mitch at centre alongside Simms on the wing.

Hopefully Mau's fit too as we need his defence and work rate. If that's the case Griffin drops out the squad as accountability for poor form.

Think the rest of the team picks itself considering the Injurys, the only other debate is who are the remaining props.

Fash and Brown at loose forward, and I'd be tempted to keep Laidlaw on the bench rather than Taylor as I think Laidlaw works alot harder and is alot fitter in attack and defence

For me there is a question mark over a few players in Houghton, Taylor and Griffin. Houghton just looks done and 80mins week in week out has just finished him off as he just can’t recover and that showed with a shorter turn around against Wigan. Griffin just looks to have no confidence since his injury and looks very slow. Taylor is another where I think his injuries and carrying us previous seasons have just taken a toll on him which is now showing. The other that had a question mark is Gale who has just not been the player we needed in terms of a half or leader.

It’s just all very deja vue again and can honestly see us throwing away a play off place yet again, not that I think we will go further than the first round.

We just seem further away than ever and that’s with one of the poorest SL we’ve had.

Agree with all of that, we desperately need to sign some senior players to replace those you've mentioned, or we need to create a new leadership group from within.

We also cannot keep having these injury crisis's season after season

Yeah, ideally McNamara would be at 6, which would let us use Lovodua at 9 but sounds like he's still a few weeks away.

Agree on the prop situation too. Think Taylor should be okay as he passed his HIA (I think). Satae will be a big miss if he doesn't make it

A must win really if we're to keep our hopes of scraping 6th and getting knocked out of week 1 of the playoffs...if Cas win and Salford best Toulouse we're out of the 6..although Toulouse are the form team in the league at the moment, the only team to have won their last 3 games...

Simm and Longstaff were signed on initial 2 week loans wasn't they? Will probably be extended during the week.

We must be aiming at stringing back to back wins against Cas and Toulouse. It's going to be tough, both sides have found form but with bodies coming back we should be able to put up a good fight. Feel like our season will fizzle out yet again should we lose these two.

Think Longstaff was a 3 week. Simm 2 week, then assessed weekly moving forward.

I'd imagine they'd both be here till the end of the season at least

For me and I know some will freak out at this (can't believe I'm saying it myself) but I'd be tempted to put Johnstone in at 9 as while he doesn't offer a great deal, for me currently he would be more effective than a very tired Houghton and have Balmforth on the bench to come on after 20mins. Its not just the playing 80mins in a game but the fact its still week in week out and Danny is still not recovered a week later and that was clear as day against Wigan from the start. BH can't keep expecting him to do it week in week out even when short on numbers and expect him to offer anything or be effective, Houghton needs leaving out to allow him the time to recover similarly to how Gaz Ellis was rested some weeks after tough games and long minutes he played.
We need to seriously up the pace we play at with much quicker ptb and line speed (both in defence and going forward) and we aren't going to do that playing a tired and worn out Houghton.

Walker
Simm
Mitch
Wynne
McIntosh
Lovodua
Gale
Sao
Johnstone
Evans
Lane
Mau (if fit)
Fash

Satae
Taylor
Brown
Balmforth

If Satae isn't 100% and Mau is fit Longstaff comes in on the bench.

https://rugby-league.com/article/60529/ ... view-panel No bans for us this week. Cheyse Blair missing for Cas. Surprised he only got 2 games.

https://rugby-league.com/article/60529/ ... view-panel No bans for us this week. Cheyse Blair missing for Cas. Surprised he only got 2 games.

Resting Houghton will not really help him or the team. He has not been a SL quality hooker for the past couple of seasons. Even fully rested I doubt he will bring anything to the table. He has been a good servant to the club but needs to recognise when to say enough is enough.

Thing is , we don’t even know if Lovodua is the answer at hooker yet.

I’d love to get a Parcell / Levi type of hooker and play Lovodua at 13.