Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"To coincide with the predictions for 2016 thread (but leaving that solely for predictions and not clutter it up). What are the views on all (or some) of our rivals chances this year? WIGAN - again will present the biggest challenge. Whilst Bowen did well at times he obviously wasn't Sam Tomkins and that could be the difference between getting them over the line but will Tomkins be the same guy that left after his knee issues. Will be interesting to see if he and Williams work well together or Tomkins' reintroduction as the star of the show impacts on Williams. They lack in a big metre making prop =#FF0000and in centres IMO but they have a style that still works at the DW. Their chances of success though will rely on improving when away from home though as that really let them down in 2015. '" Both Gelling and Sarginson made big metres (over 2,200) last season, but suffered injuries www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/20446 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/11190 The team I think will improve most this season is Catalan. IF they can get to 8 away wins they could be real threat. Getting and keeping Carney fit is a must for them, if they do we'll all have problems.

Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"To coincide with the predictions for 2016 thread (but leaving that solely for predictions and not clutter it up). What are the views on all (or some) of our rivals chances this year? WIGAN - again will present the biggest challenge. Whilst Bowen did well at times he obviously wasn't Sam Tomkins and that could be the difference between getting them over the line but will Tomkins be the same guy that left after his knee issues. Will be interesting to see if he and Williams work well together or Tomkins' reintroduction as the star of the show impacts on Williams. They lack in a big metre making prop =#FF0000and in centres IMO but they have a style that still works at the DW. Their chances of success though will rely on improving when away from home though as that really let them down in 2015. '" Both Gelling and Sarginson made big metres (over 2,200) last season, but suffered injuries www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/20446 www.superleague.co.uk/matchday/player/11190 The team I think will improve most this season is Catalan. IF they can get to 8 away wins they could be real threat. Getting and keeping Carney fit is a must for them, if they do we'll all have problems.

Yes and that's to be expected given how many carries Wigan give their centres, doesn't mean you couldn't do with a stronger signing in that department if that's your go to area for a lot of your metres.



And their numbers allude to Wigan's problem for me. Those two centres played 18 & 19 games respectively yet still made a couple of hundred metres more than your leading prop Mossop who played 26 games.



We managed to get over 3,000 metres from Watkins but Peacock and Cuthbertson both made more. Walmsley over 4,000 at Saints and Hill over 3,700 at Warrington and the most a Wigan prop could do is just over 2,000.



Possibly why the away record was so poor last year that you arguably need to do the hard yards down the middle more away from home and can't get away with spreading it wide to the centres as much as you can at home. Not just whether it's home or away but other factors such as weather and opposition should really see more games when your props give you more metres. A Walmsley or Hill eating up metres in your side in the GF in that 2nd half when our middle were clinging on by their fingernails and that might've seen us off and the trophy go to Wigan.

www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club_stats some interesting reading on there many seem to right fc off, which people are entitled too, im not expecting top 4, would be great but 6th is achievable, second to leeds in a few areas such as metres made and average gains and amongst the top clubs in other areas, quite clearly our problem last season was scoring tries! solve that and we may suprise a few

www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club_stats some interesting reading on there many seem to right fc off, which people are entitled too, im not expecting top 4, would be great but 6th is achievable, second to leeds in a few areas such as metres made and average gains and amongst the top clubs in other areas, quite clearly our problem last season was scoring tries! solve that and we may suprise a few

I think we might be the team that could go either way.

The key changes in players and the positions/ rolls they took in the team need to be filled.

Who will replace Peacock as pack leader ? Who will replace Sinfield's kicking / organization / leadership ? .

How will Sutcliffe / Ward /jjb go after their respective injuries?.

Will McGuire step up more ? Etc etc.



If we get it right early and the confidence grows we could do very well,if we struggle at HB or poor 5th tackle options etc we could have a bit of a rough time.



The additions we signed have all been spot on (on paper) and filled the holes as best as we could hope for and we seem to have more depth and have imo a player to lose in Achurch.



Wigan will be less interesting,their grind it out mentality will work as it always does at home where penalty counts tend to be higher but can Samkins win the away / tough games for them ? How will he go after injury and the NRL failure? He will want to prove he's still a top player and I'd expect nothing less.



Still can't see Wigan getting top spot tho.

Problem is a potential trade off. Whilst at Leeds we racked up points and improved our attack massively from what it was in 2014, we shipped in 219 more points in defence last year compared to 2014 when we had the leanest defence (granted 3 more league games in 2015).



Leeds clearly dedicated a lot of time and effort into improving their attack and the defence took a bit of a hit. What will be interesting to see this year if any coaches have watched Leeds last year and it's caught on and they've decided to loosen the shackles in attack a bit.

I dont see our defence a problem, only 3 games last season, 1 in the super 8s, where we were well beaten



Scoring tries has been our downfall for the last couple of seasons, mainly due to radfords safe rugby gameplan, we need to play like we did in the 8s where we were played some entertaining stuff

I would agree with you, i didn't watch Hull a whole lot last year but when i did you didn't feel like a try was around the corner even when the team got repeat sets in the opposition 25.



For me, Castleford have shown the way for the less fancied sides in how playing an attractive, fearless brand of rugby can pay off.

It's not just whether they want to loosen the shackles, it's whether they have the personnel able to do that. Catalans do. Maybe Wire if Sandow isn't too flaky. But I don't see too many teams who look obvious candidates to play heads-up rugby.

I think hull could do some damage if halves can play well. Like young Logan in the centre and the pack, particularly back row has loads of options. If ellis stays fit he may give them a peacock type leader to follow. I think Pritchard will be a nightmare for rest of the league ( but I can't tip rubbish) Key man could be how young abdull develops and where he plays.

If Pryce starts off poorly expect Abdul to step in, hopefully we will also see a trimmed down Abdul too

I hear Kim Kardashian is jealous

Is Pryce still on top Dollar? needs to start stepping up if he is