Easter Monday sees Warrington Wolves travel to East Yorkshire to take on Hull KR at Craven Park, in what is quickly becoming a must-win game. Read on to find out the team I would like us to play in this match...
Full Back - 1 Stefan Ratchford
This is probably the first time in at least two years that I've had to give serious consideration to the full back slot. Ratchford has had an awful few games filled with errors and has been defensively shocking. I think the consistency and quality of his performances in the last few years earn him some slack - I reckon he should be given one more game to perform better before being dropped if he doesn't.
Winger - 2 Tom Lineham
Our work out wide was horrific against Salford and Bryson Goodwin was largely ineffective on the wing. Steve Price was very angry with Lineham for getting himself suspended but I think he has to come back in here, particularly given that Jake Mamo is still out.
Centre - 3 Bryson Goodwin
Salford was Goodwin's first game since getting injured in the win over Castleford in Round Five, though his return to action was on the wing. His performance was disappointing overall and ordinarily I'd have wanted him dropped, but with Ryan Atkins also putting a stinker in and Mamo still injured, Goodwin needs to play in the centres, where he will hopefully do better than on Friday.
Centre - 18 Toby King
I tell you what, Friday made me realise how good King has been this season. Atkins' horrendous lack of chemistry with Josh Charnley cost us at least two tries, whereas King and Charnley work very well together. Atkins needs to be dropped after his display on Friday and if King is fit, he should take his place - I honestly consider King our best centre now.
Winger - 5 Josh Charnley
Despite not scoring in the last two games, Charnley is still the league's joint-top scorer with 11 tries, tied with fellow Wire Blake Austin and St Helens' Regan Grace. We need Charnley back scoring as soon as possible, as he is our main try threat. Hopefully he will play better if King is back alongside him on Monday.
Stand Off - 6 Blake Austin
One of very few who came away with a bit of credit on Friday. He is on a hot scoring streak, with nine tries in his last five games making him joint-top of the scoring charts. Another great dummy led to his try on Friday, a real trademark of his game. He always tries to gets attacks going, but will need more support than he got last time out if we are to get a result on Monday.
Scrum Half - 20 Harvey Livett
There aren't really many options, are there? Patton's performance was disastrous on Friday and I think we're at the point where he needs to be dropped now. I don't really know what the answer is to the issues we've got in the halves, but giving Livett a run there might be an okay idea - he can't be any worse than he was in the centre on Friday. I never thought I'd say this, but are we missing Kevin Brown?
Prop - 8 Chris Hill
Chris Hill had an okay game on Friday, making 26 tackles and not missing any. He only had nine carries of the ball and this will be a number that ideally increases on Monday. Gave away two daft penalties though, just as it looked like he had cut that out. Anyway, he'll have to start against Hull KR and lead the side out to hopefully two points.
Hooker - 9 Daryl Clark
Clark was our best player (surprise) on Friday and looked to make things happen. The intention would've been to allow Clark a bit of rest over the two Easter games but that really isn't an option for Monday now - he's probably our most important player.
Prop - 10 Mike Cooper
Cooper's levels have dropped a little bit in recent weeks but he's been nowhere near our worst performers and there should be no question over his place - even if he was to be dropped I'd have no idea who to replace him with.
Second Row - 23 Matt Davis
I really like Matt Davis. He's had three stints on the field from the bench and has impressed all three times, constantly wanting the ball and looking to make things happen, making runs from dummy half as well. I think he probably deserves a start at this point. He could play in the second row or at loose forward.
Second Row - 12 Jack Hughes
Certainly not been at his best lately, with a very poor display at St Helens last week, but with Currie unavailable to play, I'm not sure that changing both elements of the second row is a good idea. For that reason, Hughes can keep his place in the team.
Loose Forward - 17 Joe Philbin
Loose forward is becoming a bit of an issue at the minute. Philbin is clearly better off the bench, while Westwood was only able to do very short spells on Friday. I have no desire to see Lama Tasi in the team, and Jason Clark has done very little of late, so Philbin it is. If Dec Patton was in better form, I'd suggest giving Harvey Livett a go here.
Interchange - 13 Ben Murdoch-Masila
A difficult one here, as I'm not sure he really deserves a place in the squad at the minute, but we're limited on options for the bench. I don't see the point of having a back like Atkins or a halfback like Patton on the bench against a side that play very tough and stodgy rugby. We need more from BMM, particularly in his own half.
Interchange - 34 Ben Westwood
Given that our forward pack could be much-changed with the likes of Davis potentially coming in, the bench will be important. We'll need Westwood to be able to put in more of a stint than he did against Salford.
Interchange - 14 Jason Clark
I quite like Jason Clark, I think he does a lot of good work that goes under the radar, but he has disappointed a little in the last few games. Hopefully he'll have more of an impact this time round.
Interchange - 21 Danny Walker
As I alluded to earlier, there's no point having backs on the bench against a side like Hull KR, so filling the bench with forwards makes more sense. Walker has seen very limited gametime this year and could do with a few minutes here and there from the bench.
LINEUP LAST TIME OUT:
Ratchford; Goodwin, Livett, Atkins, Charnley; Austin, Patton; Hill, D Clark, Cooper; Currie, Hughes; Westwood
Interchanges: J Clark, Murdoch-Masila, Davis, Philbin
MY SWEET 17 vs HULL KR:
Ratchford; Lineham, Goodwin, King, Charnley; Austin, Livett; Hill, D Clark, Cooper; Davis, Hughes; Philbin
Interchanges: Murdoch-Masila, J Clark, Westwood, Walker
This is a big game for Warrington. We need to bounce back from two shocking losses and get ourselves firing again. A win here, and the mini-slump remains as a slump and not a crisis. In terms of Hull KR, they gave us a good game at the Halliwell Jones in Round Two, where we ran out 28-14 winners. This is probably a good time to play KR as they are coming off the back of a 56-12 smashing by city rivals Hull FC. Having said that, they picked up a good win against Leeds a few weeks ago and have some dangers in the team - Josh Drinkwater has a very neat kicking game, while Danny McGuire is still controlling games at the age of 36 like he did for Leeds when he was a youth in the mid-2000s. Thinking about the style of KR's play, Tim Sheens has his team playing quite stodgy and at times negative rugby. For the football fans among you, I saw a KR fan compare Tim Sheens to football's resident spoiler and current Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis this week - a comparison which resonates. KR's form is very hard to assess. They have been on the end of batterings by Hull FC and Huddersfield in recent weeks, though have had good wins against Leeds and Wakefield, while they ran St Helens close and were unlucky to lose to Catalans too. Hopefully we'll make a few changes to the team and the players who come in will have a big impact. I think we'll have enough to win this game because I can't see us performing as badly as we did on Friday, changes will surely be in the offing which will be a good thing, I hope. Check back on the blog for my post-Hull KR reaction, which hopefully will be a nicer task to write than the last few pieces have been!
Prediction: Hull KR 20-32 Warrington
It's always our year.
Daniel (@aloosewire)
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