From what I have read and seen of the tries you conceded, you're going to have to improve the defence at marker quite considerabely. With Milner and Clark playing at hooker this year, we have speed, sharpness and brains at the play-the-ball that give us momentum going forwards, allowing Chase the room to do his stuff and get the backs (particularly Owen from deep) into the line whilst the defence is still trying to get organised. It seems that Millward is also playing both Milner and Clark together during the last 20, when defences are tired, for that forward momentum near the end.

Stop Milner and Clark from dummy-half and you restrict the space that Chase has to work with, nullifying most our our attacking threat. Simple (on paper).

If the Cas forwards get on top, then that is exactly what will happen. However, I think even you can agree that your pack isn't anywhere near as big and aggressive as Catalans. It will still be a tough test, but I would consider the game against Cas to be a more evenly matched affair than last week was.

I don't think many packs are as big and aggressive as Catalans.

However what Millward has obviously worked on is the speed of the player getting up and playing the ball, thus giving Clark and Milner the opportunity to run at the markers who are still trying to get square.

The unusual thing is that it's not the size and aggressiveness of our props that are providing our go-forward, it's the speed of our hookers. Our forwards seem to have been told to accept the tackle quickly to get this momentum, and it's a clever tactic in my opinion.

This is exactly what he coached at St Helens and it causes absolute havoc. If you're not chasing shadows, you're giving away penalties. It's one of the reasons why grapple tackles and wrestling have entered the game. Could well be a penalty-fest on Sunday.

It's ok though, we are 30% fitter, so will be back well in time to stop any quick ptb.

That could be worth the entrance fee alone.

Some interestings stats in relation to this game. Cas made the most metres of all teams at the weekend whereas we made the least. However, Cas' 2 wingers and fullback made over 600 of their 1500 metres which would suggest Salford kicked it down their throat all night.



Milner/Clark made 133m whereas Diskin/L'Estrange made 135m.

Cas were playing Salford. - bottom 4 side.



We were playing Catalans - possible Grand Final contenders. And top 4 in league.



Massive difference. Plus Diskin/Stranger made more metres against a top 4 team than Milner/Clark did against bottom 4.

i would go with bk, ainy,purtell, lulia if fit walker if not, kear, sammut,gale, koppy, disco, joseph, whitehead, donno,langley, on bench would be scruton,heath, burgess and walker/pryce dependant on availability.

Is Whitehead definitely available?



Kearney (tempted to leave him out, but deserves another chance)

Crookes

Lulia

Purtell

Kear

Sammut

Gale

Kopzcak

Diskin

Hargreaves

Walker

Langley

Donno



L'Estrange

Burgess

Scruton/Joseph

Whitehead/Sibbit

yes his suspension is now over

That should help us out. We are missing Elima more though

Kearney

Kear

Lulia (if fit, otherwise Walker)

Purtell

Pryce (if fit, otherwise Ainscough)

Sammut

Gale

Kopzcak

L'Estrange

Scruton

Bateman (if fit, otherwise Addy)

Whitehead

Langley



Diskin

Donaldson

Joseph

Burgess



Kearney needs to become cemented in at FB



Kear and Pryce on the face of it look like 2 decent wingers, though Ainscough hasn't done much wrong and I wouldn't argue if he got a shot.

Purtell and Lulia will surely play centres all year whenever fit.



Sammut and Gale looks to me head and shoulders our best prospect of becoming a halfback combination. It may take time for them to gel and it wouldn't half help if they could play behind an actual pack, rather than powder puffs, but I wish Potter picks a combination and then sticks with it. All the best teams I have ever known have a definite and permanent starting halfback pairing.



Props - Kopczak is a shoo-in, Scruton is one of our few big lads, and we simply have to persist with him and get him up to speed. We absolutely should not drop him unless the task becomes impossible.



L'Estrange should start, and if he gets back to anything like, he will again be one of our top players and best attacking and organisational threats. Especially with Diskin on the bench to spell him.



Bateman and Whitehead looks a potential class young second row pairing. Doubt if Bateman can be fit but we live in hope.



I'd play Langley from the start as we may need some serious tackling and he provides that, and a bit of weight and muscle. I'd definitely start giving joseph a shot off the bench, the sort of visible enthusiasm he seems to have is in short supply for much of the game with us. Burgess and Donaldson, especially Burgess, contain true class, potentially, and as we are short of size, I hope to see Burgess fit enough to do reasonable length spells to share the workload. Him, Scruton, Kopczak and to some extent Langley should be able to win their share of collisions. It will make a helluva big difference us to have M'fuka and Elima available though.

Whats Crookes done wrong?