Who will partner Theo Fages in the halves for St Helens in France?
It’s been another week to forget for St Helens. Defeat to Hull was their third in succession, with their only victory this season against Leeds on the opening night. Keiron Cunningham’s gamble on Jon Wilkin backfired – and it begs the question: who will play scrum-half against Catalans on Saturday night?
Danny Richardson could yet come back into the mix, Tommy Lee could drop in there or Wilkin could remain in the role. It’s not like Cunningham doesn’t have options: it’ll be interesting to see which one he plumps for.
Can Wakefield’s renaissance continue against Leeds?
That Wakefield have been in all four games they’ve competed in thus far is a credit to the early-season work done by Chris Chester and Trinity – but of late, they’ve started turning narrow defeats into victories. Back-to-back wins against St Helens and Salford suddenly have Wakefield looking up rather than down – and they’ll be looking to continue that on Friday night when they travel to Headingley to take on Leeds.
Will Denis Betts roll the dice and mix his Widnes team up?
“I’m not making idle threats to players but I have to look at what and where I can change things.”
Strong words from Denis Betts after Sunday’s defeat to Castleford, which left Widnes with just a solitary point to their name after the first four weeks of the new season. They travel to Hull on Friday night still looking for a first win of 2017: and Betts has hinted he could make changes judging by his 19-man squad.
Ted Chapelhow and Jordan Johnstone are waiting in the wings for a call-up from Betts – but will he be tempted to roll the dice?
Will we see Todd Carney in a Salford shirt this weekend?
Few could have argued with Ian Watson’s decision to stick with the same 17 who beat Warrington a fortnight ago for last week’s game at Wakefield – but after defeat at Belle Vue, will Watson now bring in new signing Todd Carney for a debut?
The temptation must be huge for Watson – although fitting him into a team stacked with talented pivots will be a tricky ask. If Carney does play, he only has the small matter of trying to beat league leaders Castleford on Sunday afternoon. No pressure, Todd.
How will Huddersfield live with the might of Wigan?
Huddersfield fans could be forgiven for being quite fearful of Sunday afternoon’s trip to Wigan. Nine days on from their last trip to the borough when they were hammered 30-0 at Leigh, Rick Stone’s men now have the unenviable task of looking to end the world champions’ unbeaten start to 2017.
It’s a daunting ask on paper – but thankfully for Giants fans, the game isn’t played on paper. Do they stand any sort of chance?
