It's a pretty strong Bulls team however you want to frame it.

Possible line up:

Pickersgill
Ryan
Evans
Webster
Hitchcox
Illey
Chisholm
Kirk
Wildie
Crossley
Garside
Minchella
Wood

Flanagan, Green, Hallas & Magrin on the bench with Farrell and Oakes missing out.

Very suprised quite a few have Farrell on the bench or even outside the 17!
Hes been great in pre season and absolutely immence in the game at Batley.
For me it a total no brainer, hes a certainty to start in the second row along side Mini

For that to happen would mean Garside misses out completely. He’s not a bench player. As the ball dies a lot with Garside I wouldn’t have minded seeing a Minchella/Farrell second row with Storton off the bench. But Garside/Minchella with Farrell on the bench works for me.

Yeah I agree Farrell starts for me. Garside will interchange with Wood and probably see Minchella go in at loose.

I think both the guys you got from us (Fev), Farrell and Wildie, are players you will appreciate more and more as the season goes on.
Nothing flashy about Farrell but he's usually pretty solid. Wildie has a fine rugby brain and will marshall you really well at hooker, he was one of the players I was most disappointed to lose at the end of lasts eason.

I agree. They both appear to be very good Championship players and have improved our squad.

Farrell defo in for me.

In case of any doubt.Game definitely goes ahead the club have just confirmed.

The sun appears to be out where I am so today may not be as glacial as I thought. Excellent work by the ground staff to get the game on.

Trust me, it is not a warm day in this part of the world.

Wrap up well folks.

anyone know where the game is online/streamed? ... got bcb open (please dont make me listen) mixlr open facebook open youtube open lol edit... looks like not on bcb .. on pulse 2 https://www.pulse2.co.uk/

anyone know where the game is online/streamed? ... got bcb open (please dont make me listen) mixlr open facebook open youtube open lol edit... looks like not on bcb .. on pulse 2 https://www.pulse2.co.uk/

Does not seem to be being streamed on FB. Maybe able to watch on YT on Wednesday.

yeah not streamed ... been trawling around the internet an hour before the game to find any commentary. not even on bcb (

but

) ... it was only on a hunch that i searched for pulse and got Mick with Pelts so happy days



proper winter style rugby, really attritional ... gonna be won on who makes the least mistakes .. 4-6 to fev ht

17-16 Bulls



real hard game but listening we ground out that win

i think until we find our championship feet, we are gonna have to grind out wins like this

interesting results already ... close at york, swinton getting a thumping, didnt think Batley would lose and a good win for Leigh

Will take that. Was certainly a grind. Both teams completion rate was excellent considering the conditions. Thought we had blown it when we were 16-10 up, ignored the chance for a DG, then conceded a pen on the 5th tackle for them to score under the posts.

Fev looked like a team that probably still need a few more games playing together. They will definitely improve. Having said that we will as well. We weren't great at certain points. But it's exactly the type of game we would have lost in the past.

Onto Swinton.

Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it wasn't going to be in those conditions. We really missed Keyes and his kicking, and in the first half the kicking from Lilley was poor, with the chase being non existant too. Fev looked value for money, and their kicking was much better than ours. And they made more ground in the tackle too. We missed our on a couple of scores with people not backing themselves in my eyes, but that confidence will come throughout the season hopefully.

What happened with the scrapping in the stand? We were stood behind some young Fev lads who were pretty lairy, sweary and looking for bother, and the shenanigans in the crowd happened not long after they joined the throng. We don't need that sort of behaviour in the game at all.

Couldn’t make the game due to work but certainly a great result against a quality Championship outfit. Looks like it was a mud fest from the pictures, this time of the season is all about grinding out results like this.

I've criticised him in the past but I thought Lilley was excellent today. We struggled up front because of Magrin dropping out, which meant we only had 3 props.
Two huge errors dealing with kicks gifted Featherstone 10 of their 16 points, we were lucky that they didn't cost us in the end.

Couldn't make the game but listened to the second half on Pulse 2 and I have to commend Mick Gledhill's commentary today for the way he created/communicated the tension and made it such an exciting game to listen to.

Good start. Onwards.

We were stood in middle of featherstone supporters unfortunately. Some of comments they came out with were pretty disgusting. Charming lad behind us repeatedly wished for ref to rejoin army so he could go back to afghanistan and get shot again!. when fighting occured they were generally cheering it on as if it was just part of entertainment. Came across as a bunch of inbred hillbillies and glad 'gone back to their pit village. Cant say its going to be a away fixture i'll be attending.


On the field thought we did what we had to, to grind out the win. Wasn't conditions for throwing it about and we went in with a gameplan and stuck to it. Thought Chisholm was very quiet in 1st half but grew into game in 2nd half.

Really pleased that we managed to get through with a win, it was baltic out there and a real mudfest.

Honestly thought we rode our luck for periods, they seemed to be winning the collision, making more metres and winning the kicking game as well.

Thought that their first try was dubious cos of the offside, and thought Chisholm’s was dubious cos of the grounding but we will see from the video I guess. Thought we’d blown it when Jy made a break and we didn’t score from it, and they scored two quick ones shortly after.

On the topic of Hitchcox, what a quality player - unreal footwork even in this weather, difficult to catch and I’m glad we have him. Also Lilley was a real leader out there, made sensible decisions and is the cool organised head we need especially in the absence of Keyes.

Shows a real spirit that we found a win. Bodies were well and truly put on the line - as shown by Crossley breaking his two front teeth!

COYB! Bring on the bloody sunshine.

Fev seem to have picked up some 14-18 yo scallies in the past year - feel sorry the older and more respectful fans will get tarnished with the same brush

Good win guys.. Can't wait for Odsal this season.