Wane Names Squad for Big One Clash

[josie andrews]

Wigan Warriors Head Coach Shaun Wane has today named his 19 man squad for Friday's Big One 4 fixture at the DW Stadium against Hull FC, 8pm kick off

As expected Darrell Goulding, Brett Finch, Sean O'Loughlin and Ben Flower all miss out through injury so young half Sam Powell is included in the 19 and is set to make his first team debut. Sam Tomkins is expected to captain the side in the absence of O'Loughlin and Finch.

Wigan Warriors 19 Man Squad (In squad number order)

Sam Tomkins, Josh Charnley, George Carmont, Michael McIlorum, Lee Mossop, Harrison Hansen, Gareth Hock, Jeff Lima, Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson, Epalahame Lauaki, Anthony Gelling, Jack Hughes, Logan Tomkins, Sam Powell, Tom Spencer, Dom Crosby, Iain Thornley, Matty Smith

Referee - James Child


http://www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... 397&type=1

[Wigan_forever1985]

3 with hamstring injuries? could this be the training methods? or just really unlucky

[Owd Codger]

What was wrong with playing Jack Murphy who was outstanding on his debut at full back with Sam at Stand Off.

[Kittwazzer]

Since we're in need of a replacement for Finch next year it's a chance to get a look at Powell and see how well he does in the first team.

That's my take as well. I'm not expecting too much from this game but if Powell can match Murphy's debut I'll be more than happy!

[Ron Doran]

Josie - please excuse my ignorance,but what does it mean? ' Big One 4'

[Kittwazzer]

Ron. Its the fourth 'Big One', a home game selected against a different team each season to be extensively marketed as a 'showpiece', extra entertainment etc.

[Owd Codger]

cherry.pie

They would still be playing a half back in Tomkins and Murphy has the experience of having played in a previous game. And as far as I am concerned Sam was only ever moved to full back by Maguire to accomodate Finch and Leului at half back with Mcllorum holding down the hooking position. You only had to see how Sinfield exposed his weakness in the semi final to see that he is not a natural full back.

[BriH]

I think this will be a forwards game with our fast backs picking up any chances that come their way.
That being the case, I'm confident of a win.
My real worry is the lack of a credible kicker, especially when Hull now have two.

[jobo]

cherry.pie

They would still be playing a half back in Tomkins and Murphy has the experience of having played in a previous game. And as far as I am concerned Sam was only ever moved to full back by Maguire to accomodate Finch and Leului at half back with Mcllorum holding down the hooking position. You only had to see how Sinfield exposed his weakness in the semi final to see that he is not a natural full back.

Tomkins was moved to fullback by Maguire because he thought it would be his best position and judging by his form since that switch it looks like he was right. He's done the same thing with Greg Inglis at Souths so the man knows what makes a good fullback.

Our attacking moves are basically made to provide Tomkins with the most space out wide. Since Tomkins isn't likely to have trained in the halves at all this year he's not likely to be as familiar with those moves from a halfback's perspective as Powell is.

It's also harsh to say that Sinfield exposed his weakness because in the lead up to that first try what Sinfield did was demonstrate his own strength in his kicking game. It was an incredibly difficult kick and one that Tomkins can't be blamed for dropping. The other error to let the 40/20 go out of play was just lack of concentration, something that has happened to every single player at some point in time.
A lot is made of Tomkins' weaknesses, and it's true he has some but he's also been responsible for some excellent reads defensively and some brilliant cover tackles this year which don't seem to get mentioned.

Tomkins is our best attacking player and is best attacking from fullback so with several key players missing it makes sense to minimise the disruption and keep our best player in what is his best position.

While Murphy has experience it's only one game so not a big reason to select him over Powell. If you only selected players who had previous experience we'd never produce any youngsters! Powell was expected to play some games for the first team this year and would almost certainly replaced Leuluai had he not broken his leg in March. It's not exactly a case of throwing in someone on a whim as Powell was expected to play for the first team at some point, so now is as good a time as any.

Since we need another halfback for next year and we've got a promising and highly rated halfback in Powell the sensible option is to give him a chance, just like they did with Murphy.

Agree about Powell getting a good try out but Tomkins was moved to fullback following the injury to Amos Roberts, who was playing out of his skin at the time. Don't see why at some stage, Tomkins can't do a Lockyer and switch between stand off and fullback. Two for the price of one then plus he keeps his skills set up to scratch.

[jobo]

Agree about Powell getting a good try out but Tomkins was moved to fullback following the injury to Amos Roberts, who was playing out of his skin at the time. Don't see why at some stage, Tomkins can't do a Lockyer and switch between stand off and fullback. Two for the price of one then plus he keeps his skills set up to scratch.

It wasn't the injury to Roberts that moved Tomkins to fullback necessarily, it was the return to fitness of Paul Deacon which allowed Tomkins to move away from the halves. Until that point it was Phelps and then Richards who played fullback but Tomkins pretty much made the position his own with his performances there.

There's obviously no reason why Tomkins can't move back to stand off and it might be worth doing but on this occasion I can't see it being the case. It's already been confirmed that Tomkins will be playing fullback next year which is no surprise, so for this game it's sensible for Wane to get a look at how Powell does.

As for Lockyer, when he established himself as a regular first team player he had 7 straight years playing solely as a fullback before moving to stand off, where he played out the rest of his career without ever returning to fullback.
Lockyer never switched between the two positions regularly or in between seasons, he became established at fullback and then at stand off.

I'm sure other players have switched between positions but at the moment that isn't something that we need to do. Sam's an excellent fullback but still has plenty of room for improvement so he's still got plenty to learn in the role.

Think Lockyer started as stand off or 5/8th, switching to centre then fullback and back to 5/8th again. He won the Golden Boot as a 5/8th and as a fullback. His preferred position though was at stand off. The switching came about because the broncos went through several stand offs and Bennett made the move against loads of opposition.