Sweet 17: London Broncos (h)

Round Nine of the 2019 Super League sees Warrington Wolves host newly-promoted London Broncos, who travel to the Halliwell Jones on Friday night. Read on to find out the 17 players I would like to see take to the field for this match...


In terms of team news, it was revealed on Tuesday that Jake Mamo will miss this game with a sprained ankle sustained towards the end of the win over Hull FC last week. Ben Westwood remains unavailable as he sits out the third of his four-match suspension, while long-term absentee Kevin Brown is also not an option. There are a few returns though - Bryson Goodwin is back available from the ankle injury that has sidelined him since the Round Five win over Castleford and Ryan Atkins has recovered from the illness that kept him out of the Hull FC win, while Matt Davis has returned from his month-long loan spell with Friday's opponents. Despite Goodwin's return from injury, he has not made the 19-man squad for this match, though Davis and Sitaleki Akauola, who has spent some time this season on loan at Rochdale, have made the squad.

There has been much debate on social media this week about whether Steve Price should rest players for this game with a clash with St Helens next week. London at home is arguably one of the easiest fixtures of the season on paper, and coming seven days before possibly the biggest fixture of the league campaign in terms of our hopes of finishing top, questions are bound to be asked about rotation for this game. I have tried to make my side strong enough to defeat the Broncos, while giving a few players who have played a lot of rugby league a little breather. One of these decisions was made a little easier when the 19-man squad for this game was announced and didn't include Jack Hughes, who is rested. Here is my team to take on the Broncos...

Full Back - 1 Stefan Ratchford
Despite there being some chat about resting key players, Ratchford isn't one of the ones in question. Our only cover for him is Mamo (and that's not even his favourite position) and he's out through injury. If we do opt to make some changes, there will be a lot of emphasis on Ratchford to be one of the leaders of the team.

Winger - 2 Tom Lineham
Lineham made a successful return to the team last week, with two tries against his former employees. His week continued on an upward trajectory with the news that he has signed a new deal, keeping him at the Wire until 2021. With Mamo out injured, Lineham is a fairly automatic pick here.

Centre - 4 Ryan Atkins
After putting in his best performance of 2019 at Wakefield, Atkins missed the win at Hull through illness. He has returned to the squad and with the injury to Mamo and Goodwin not making the squad, seems an obvious choice to play at centre.

Centre - 18 Toby King
Now here's a man in fine form. King has been brilliant in both offensive and defensive elements of his game lately. It was great to see him commit his future to the Wire with a new deal this week, which his form has richly deserved. He is likely to have another new partner at centre this week, given Mamo's injury.

Winger - 5 Josh Charnley
Super League's top tryscorer is in quite frankly unbelievable form right now, with ten tries in eight games this season. Charnley has been a revelation since joining the Wire last season and his clinical finishing will be key against a team that concede a lot of points.

Stand Off - 6 Blake Austin
2019's Marquee Signing has been magical in the last two games, showing some outstanding skill which has ripped apart Wakefield and Hull's defences. Even though he has played nearly every minute of the season, we'd lose too much of our attacking structure without him, so he will have to keep his place for this game.

Scrum Half - 15 Declan Patton
Against a side which have conceded a lot of tries lately, this could be a game for Patton to work on his creative play and help the team to a healthy haul of points. His game has been strong in the last few weeks, hopefully he can continue this form before next week's trip to St Helens.

Prop - 8 Chris Hill
The captain's display last week was by far his best of the season, with a number of clever offloads that helped set up tries, as well as making up a good amount of yardage. I wanted to rest one of the props from the start for this match and I chose Cooper. 

Hooker - 21 Danny Walker
Daryl Clark has played a copious amount of rugby league so far this season, and constantly plays at full tilt with high-octane performances every week. With St Helens coming up next week, I saw this as an opportunity to use Walker from the start. Walker came off the bench at Wakefield and struggled, but against a less offensive side in London, could perform better. If Clark is to be rested, then he must be on the bench so he can come on if needed.

Prop - 17 Joe Philbin
Philbin was one of three players to sign new deals at the Halliwell Jones this week, and one of the most interesting notes was Steve Price commenting that he intends to play Philbin in the prop forward role at some point soon. I see this game as a good opportunity to give Cooper a rest and offer Philbin a chance to have some game time in his preferred position from the start.

Second Row - 11 Ben Currie
I was really impressed with Currie away at Hull last week, and his fitness levels seem to be incredible - he has played the full 80 minutes in all four of his games this season. Given that I have made one change in the second row, the emphasis will be on Currie to be a leader of the forward pack.

Second Row - 13 Ben Murdoch-Masila
Despite not starting a single game this season, Murdoch-Masila has been brilliantly effective from the bench. His metres stats are among the best in the league and his strength and force have helped him score three tries this campaign. I think this would be a good game for him to start in, with London being a team that often struggle with physicality in tackles.

Loose Forward - 20 Harvey Livett
The final change to my starting 13 sees Harvey Livett make his second start of 2019. Livett has said that his favourite position is at loose forward and this game could be a chance to see him get a game there after a decent cameo at Hull last week.

Interchange - 9 Daryl Clark
I would play Walker from the start and have Clark on the bench for if the game is looking uncomfortable at any point. He could surely do with a rest the week before the Saints game, though he shouldn't be entirely dropped from the squad, because as seen at Wakefield, a full 80 minutes without him might be too much.

Interchange - 10 Mike Cooper
A star performer of the season so far, Cooper has started every game. His last few performances in particular have been superb, though in order to keep him fully fresh for the trip to the Totally Wicked Stadium next week, he could be used more sparingly against London on Friday.

Interchange - 19 Sitaleki Akauola
The return to the 19-man squad of Akauola is an interesting one. He has played for Rochdale Hornets a few times this season and now has been named in our squad. This game could be a chance for him to get his Wire career going again.

Interchange - 14 Jason Clark
I gave a lot of thought to starting the 29-year-old at loose forward, though Steve Price has shied away from starting the Australian in recent weeks, with his best work coming in stints from the bench.

LINEUP LAST TIME OUT:
Ratchford, Lineham, Mamo, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Hill, D.Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Philbin
Interchanges: J.Clark, Tasi, Livett, Murdoch-Masila

MY SWEET 17:
Ratchford, Lineham, Atkins, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Hill, Walker, Philbin, Currie, Murdoch-Masila, Livett
Interchanges: D.Clark, Cooper, Akauola, J.Clark

My team sees five changes to the starting team from last week, though just two changes to the matchday 17. Mamo and Tasi have dropped out from the squad that faced Hull FC, with Atkins and Akauola replacing them in their places at centre and interchange respectively. The starting lineup sees Livett, Walker, Murdoch-Masila and Atkins come in while Clark, Cooper, Mamo and Hughes drop out. The thinking behind these changes is to mix the squad up a bit. I have selected a squad which has enough quality to get the game won, with lots of experience on the bench if it is needed. It is a long season and rotation will need to happen at some point, and this seems the perfect opportunity for it, with St Helens next week. Also, looking further ahead, we have blocks of games in short spells coming up soon - there are only two days rest between the home game against Salford and the trip to Hull KR the week after, and with the Challenge Cup starting soon as well, fixture congestion is going to become a factor to consider. With this in mind, we are going to need a fully fit squad, ideally with players that have had game time recently so that if changes need to be made, the players coming into the squad aren't coming in cold.

London sit 11th in the table, second from bottom after back-to-back home defeats against Hull FC and Huddersfield. After a really bright start, these results have been concerning for Danny Ward's side, whose battle to stay in Super League and avoid relegation will be dictated largely by their home form. The Broncos have lost all but one of their away games, which was a superb win over Leeds Rhinos. Despite being expected to be relegation fodder, they have surprised a few people with three excellent wins - as well as the win at Headingley, they recorded highly impressive home wins over Wakefield and Wigan. So far, they have outperformed expectations, though the last two games have seen London concede 28 and 38 points, though they have registered 24 and 26 points in these games. London have missed the most tackles of anyone in the league and this could be an area to exploit. Perhaps the best comparison in terms of scores is London's game away at St Helens in Round Five, where they were defeated 24-0 in one of only two whitewashes in 2019. Saints rested a few players and managed to still win by a fair scoreline, and this is what we should be looking to do too. I think we may score more than that as our scoring power in recent weeks has been excellent, though given London have notched nearly 30 points in their last two games, I feel they will get themselves on the scoreboard. Still, this should be a reasonably comfortable win for us, and is a chance to give a few players a chance to get some gametime and impress.

Elsewhere this week, St Helens travel to the inconsistent Catalans Dragons - could this be a chance for them to drop points ahead of their game with us next week? The improving Huddersfield will visit Wakefield, while there is a mid-table clash between Salford and Hull FC. The Thursday night game is Hull KR hosting bottom-of-the-league Leeds, while the big game of the week sees 3rd place Castleford take on Wigan on Friday. With the brilliant initiative that the club are running to get school children to attend this game, this will be a special night for many young people attending their first ever match. Let's get the Halliwell Jones rocking like it was for the Wigan game and get another two points on the board!

Prediction: Warrington 34-10 London

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)