Why do you think Houghton needs a breather?

66 tackles last week and no misses?

A must win game. To win in style will be the aim given the early run of home games.

It's a marathon, not a sprint. Any game he doesn't have to do 60+ minutes will be beneficial to him at the back end of the year.

I think we should try starting with heremaia to see what difference that makes. Personally he would be my starting hooker and bring houghton on to have a go at the tiring defences. heremaia would give us more go forward early on. He certainly doesn't want to be warming the bench for an hour again

Agree with that, Houghton's scoots from dummy half would be much more effective against tired opposition

But his tenacious defence in the first quarter helps prevent sides like Saints getting an early roll on and blowing us away.

And his lack of quality ball and direction out of dummy half stop us getting an early roll on and blowing teams away

You said we'd struggle to make the 8. Now sticking Heremaia on means we'll be blowing teams away after 20 minutes? Unlikely.

Not as unlikely as it is with houghton on the pitch

leave them as there are, doing a good job omo

Maybe it could be better though