Hard to pick a 17? it seems to be after some stand out performances at the weekend.
Who would you go with for the 17?
Full back seems to be the hard one for me. I like Shaul, but I'm a huge fan of rankin, so for that spot, I think it will be horses for courses. Shaul is a top player with a great future ahead of him, fast as hell, but not a ball player.
Rankin top player, great pride and passion for the club, deadly side step, good with ball in hand.
so do we use full back as pivot aswell as 13 or do we have 13 as pivot and shaul off the cuff style?

anyway whats your 17?

shaul is our no.1 from last season its his position to lose at the start

shaul
lineham
sa
yeamo or michaels
talanoa
pryce
sneyd
paea
houghton
watts
ellis
mini
westerman

rankin
thomson
green or bowden
feka

I'd go with that apart from we need a hooker on the bench. Playing Houghton 80 min not good IMO

see Ive always thought we get the best out of Houghton when he is on the field for 80mins. He gets a feel for the game, spots weaknesses in defences and starts to run the game and gets us going forward

Good point but worried where gonna run him into the ground

disagree, we lose our zipp around the ruck, his passing gets worse as he gets tired and by definition he loses the edge to make those gaps. Having an interchange as we did with Heremaia brought us far more impetuous on the field than with a flagging Houghton without a shadow of doubt, everyone could see the difference.
I've said it before I'd rather have Rankin on the bench as an interchange 9 if nothing else, he can cover FB/HB and probably centre too if need be and he has pace, a very decent passing game and always gives his all.

Spot on!