Very tough opening game,particularly without our best 3 forwards and unsuitable conditions.
Still start positively,il go 13-6 Fax

10 - 24

My Prediction, Fax Lose, Fans forum on facebook goes into meltdown.

Last defeat at Oldham was unforgivable...but sadly where both clubs stand now,it wouldnt be a surprise..certainly not advocating it but is DR only allowed in league ?
No bloody coaches too...WTF hate driving when im in London every other Saturday...

I would take any win to be honest if we don't it will be a struggle to progress beyond the group stage. As for dr we do have 3 middles missing so do we use Connor davies and Sam campbell or see if Leeds who are playing the Bulls on sunday have any better players who we could use. The pitch at Oldham looks pretty good so i will go for a slightly higher scoring game then we saw at Keighley 16-20 to the Panthers.

I haven't a clue as to who might win this one, but if we do lose it's season over as we would 99% be out of this competition, the league doesn't count any more and we're rather unlikely to win the ChallengeCup. I'll go for a draw to keep our season alive. Lol!

Sounds like we may be signing Ben Hursey-Hord, young prop from Leeds on loan/D/R - apparently played in Bulls friendly which I didn't see so no idea what he's like. Hopefully Lannon only out for a week, but Douglas not likely to be available in the short term - no idea about Calcott as no info from the club on his injury, so probably not a bad idea. Really hope though this doesn't mean Calcotts injury is serious as I was expecting good things from him this season.

According to Finn lannon is fine , calcott not too bad and possibly available, ben hursey hord looked good against Bradford and will be a good addition, salty n Eden available, things looking better than originally expected.

Tough game away and Oldham put 46 past Keighley on Boxing Day.

I hope Calcott is ok. He looked on fire for the short time he was on the field at Keighley. Sounds like some of the money saved on Moore might be going towards loanees.

Yes borne out by squad announcement,strong as it could be at this stage,bar Douglas.

Hursey-Hord named in the Leeds Squad for sunday.

Bodes well that he's good enough should he become a future loanee.Would like to see Tom Oldroyd in a Fax shirt too this season,having followed his progress keenly since in played alongside my lad at Siddal u8s..

Personally I'm pleased but also interested to see how Olly Smart goes for Leeds, He played with my lad at Siddal, didn't go to an academy, played first team at 16 and has now gone to Leeds and is in Sunday's squad. Good Player, hope he makes the step up.

Interesting choices with what is very nearly a full strength squad, and some good established players likely to be disappointed. If Widdop is really fit you'd think he must play, albeit at the expense of one of our best players over last couple of seasons. Hope he doesn't shift JWH into the centre to accommodate him - if he plays in the halves think Jouffret would provide better balance as a runner, rather than Keyes, but don't think there's any chance he'll leave Keyes out, with Jouffret possibly on the bench. If that was the case I'd line up
JWH
Eden
Crooks
Tibbs
Saltonstall
Keyes
Widdop
Murray
O'brien
Calcott
Gee
O Davies
Fairbank

Inman
Lannon
Tangata
Jouffret

Seems a reasonable selection...Can't see Kav been overlooked at this stage.Anyone know where C.Davies may figure or is he just third choice hooker ?

If Calcott and Lannon had been missing i would of put Kavanagh at prop with Olly davies in the second row. So with them both hopefully fit i would go with.

Woody
Salty
Tibbs
Crooks
Eden
Widdop
Jouffret
Calcott
O brien
Lannon
Kavanagh
O davies
Gee

Tangata
Murray
Fairbank
Ingham

My thought process is this , we only have a 23 man squad with potential additions of hursey hord and the trialist hollidge . Sam Campbell and Douglas miss out . I don’t think widdop is ready yet fitness wise . Larroyer hasn’t learnt from last year’s discipline issues . Tibbs has been playing well . So I’m going

Woody
Salty
Crooks
Tibbs
Eden
Keyes
Jouffret
Calcott
Obrien
Murray
Kav
Gee
Fairbank

Inman
Olly davies
Tangata
Lannon.

I've only seen friendlies on YouTube but very surprised to see Olly Davies at 18th man and Connor Davies on the bench. Presumably Calcott and Salty are still injured.

Surprised me too and the performance was everything I expected rather than what I’d hoped for...

Hadnt realised oldham teamsheet was so strong ,accept that some better pack members were out today but needs an enforcer element to get us forward and retain possession

As above no real surprise. A lack of fire and fight in the team and had more of a friendly feel to it than a competitive game. Clear as day we need another centre and some muscle up front. We should get that with Calcott and Douglas but centre is going to be a huge problem for us again. End of the day we gifted them two tries and bombed 2 ourselves, Oldham not as good as some people are making out.

Frustrating game to watch , momentum swung with the intercept and the game was then largely played in our half after a combination of handling errors and a good kicking game by them . Our discipline wasn’t too bad but everything went against us , dropped ball at crucial times and a bizarre disallowed try . Inman tibbs woody Eden played well the rest were average.

Mistake after mistake after mistake! Compounded when one of our better players, Crooks, dropped the ball and instead of falling on the loose ball he stood there whilst the Oldham player picked it up and sped away for a six pointer. As ListenUp says, very frustrating and a game we should never have lost.

It was unforgivable from Crooks..Oldham have good players and were pretty well drilled at this early stage with so many newcomers..as for us,same e,different season,Finn needs to dismantle that pack during the course of what will inevitably be a long season.It should,of course,have happened 2 years ago...