Terrible new for Hoopert, but it definitely opens the door for the props turning out in the Challenger series. I'm guessing the initial will be Zander and Fa'agase as the looseheads with Tupou and Nonggorr covering tighthead.
Lots of options to then round the squad out, I'd like to see 2 players added for cover - 1 prop and 1 hooker (ideally Dobbins) to free Asiata/Nasser/Blake to cover prop if needed. We did end up using 5 hookers this year anyway, so having that coverage again couldn't hurt. Not sure who they'll go with for the prop though, the two I would've most like to see looked at are Francis and Van Nek, and neither of them are in the challenger series. I guess it will come down to next weeks performance to get a seat on the plane to Japan and then they'll go from there. The alternative is signing someone like Shambeckler Vui from Japan, but I think I'd prefer to see them focus on challenger series options, unless there's an absolute star loosehead available.