you may have a chance against them



James Graham will have a scan on a sternum injury as will Sia Soliola (ankle).
Ade Gardner looks set to be out for two to four weeks with a rib cartilage problem.
Francis Meli still isnt in the country and has apparently asked for his contract to be terminated.
Kyle Eastmond may be doubtful due to pulling a muscle in his leg, but possible he may play.
Nobody knows the extent of Fasavalou's injury.

James Graham is the only notable absentee (if he is absent) but really, I never buy into this "weakened team" stuff, because it just never works out like that. As for chances, the odds will be around evens whatever the teams, I reckon.

They're in trauma over on entertainers and redvee. Friend Blobby has compared the current side to Bulls of ten years ago, though of course ten years ago BullS were beating Leeds in a final.

If Graham and Faasavalu don't play that will really up our chances, I was worried about how we would cope with Saints bench but with 2 props out they may struggle

Good chance regardless of who they play.

Booing your team off after the first match of the season is impatient to say the least.

Saints fans are spoilt. They are not used to losing games. Not like us!

Bulls have a good chance because saints looked awful but we weren't too cracking plus Graham is so overrated wouldn't trouble us.

He's one of -if not the- hardest working props in the league. He made the most metres out of any player last season, he is not overrated.

Out of interest, which props in Super League would you consider better than the "overrated" Graham?

Too right. Hard to pick a more effective prop than Graham anywhere in the competition - think he'd go very well in the NRL.

And if he can play through the pain (sternum injury? mother of all pains is that, especially since every man and his dog will target that) and get out on the park, he will. If he DOES have to admit defeat and miss out, that's a big loss for Stains.

What would the teams be for people?

I think we should go with 1 of two options.

Halley
Sheriffe
Sykes
Nero
Reardon
Kearney
Orford
Lynch
L'Estrange
Scruton
Hall
Langley
Menzies

Godwin
Kopzcak
Crossley/G Burgess
Whitehead/Donno/Worrincy



Or

With the backs the same :

Lynch
L'Estrange
Hall
Menzies
Langley
Donaldson

Godwin
Scruton
Kopzcak
Whitehead/Worrincy/Olbison


I think we definitely need another prop on the bench, and if Burgess or Crossley are genuinely not ready for SL, then I think until Sculthorpe's fit then Scruton will probably be the best bet for some impact off the bench.

He did last night. He was injured well before coming off and yet every time the physio went anywhere near him, Graham just waved him away. It looked like in the end they pretty much forced him to come off the field, as he wasn't going to do it willingly.

While it may be incredibly stupid, that's the sort of guts any fan or coach loves to see in a player.

The only ones who come close are Peacock and Lynch imo. There are other great props, but ones who provide more impact rather than 50 mins + constant hard work.

I think Saints pack will really miss Graham as he carries it for most of the year.

No way will we see either Burgess or Crossley in the squad next week IMO.

Ive been on the saints part of the site and there calling for mick potter to be sacked already.
There saying the sames thing we Bulls fans were saying last year that he,s lost the dressing room,conditioner needs replacing ,players need a kick up the backside.
So IF and i mean IF this is right and theres unrest in the saints camp then were playing them at the right time.

From what I understand, Saints are in a very very similar situation to the one our club finds itself in (that folk on here refer to as being mentioned or hinted at during fans forums). Not really surprising that their plight seems to be mirroring ours somewhat (although obviously they have a way to go yet until they "catch up"icon_wink.gif.

Then we better hope that if Graham and Faasavalu do play, they are not at their best as going in with one prop on the bench is risky.

One prop on the bench does not mean playing the whole game with 3 props though, as we saw numerous times last season with Burgess and this past Friday with Hall. Hall may start in the second row, but he will inevitably play some time at prop, meaning we actually play with 3.5 rotating props. And that's assuming he doesn't give Worrincy a spell there (although it would be better if Worrincy was given a spell as tea boy this week).

I know, but where's the impact coming from?

We don't have the squad to have an impact prop off the bench (with the possible exception of when Sculthorpe is back, but the jury is still out there). Not unless we leave Scruton or Lynch out of the starting line-up, which is daft as both have proven in the past that they have a far better game when starting.

With the squad we have, they will look for a different type of "impact" to just bringing a big prop off the bench to use as a battering ram.

Well I hope you give them a good hiding. Firstly I'm a Giants fan, secondly a Yorkshire fan so i'll always be supporting you boys against any non Yorkshire SL team ([size=50and Leeds[/size)

I like this guy! He can come again!

It would be nice to have some of you give your views of the game on my forum too, we're a friendly bunch

That concerns me too. I know its early days yet but looking at our bench we dont seem to have anyone to come on and change the game for us. Yes we've only had one game but we only have sculthorpe, platt & whitehead to come in then we are down to untried youngsters ( even if the are full of potential,in particular G. burgess). I know we dont have top quality in the 3/4 but we do have options, the forwards however we do look one short.
There are plenty that are not keen on worrincy ( me included defensively) but he does provide impact from the bench, epecially on firmer pitches.