A terrible trio and we’ve lost the only one who had a modicum of effectiveness/ability. I hope Sam stays for more than 2 seasons as I can’t see he him signing such utter dross.

Tomorrows 17, barring any injuries in the warm up, will be......

Dufty
Ashton
King
Wrench
Thewlis
Drinkwater
Hayes
Vaughan
Walker
Harrison
Fitzgibbon
Holroyd
Currie

Musgrove
Powell
Philbin
Wood

Williams out for 4 weeks approx

Well , this is going to be interesting

I heard it’s his back, not ankle?

Williams' injury is a big blow, this is a really great opportunity for Hayes though. Outshine drinkwater for 4 weeks and hopefully retain his place when Williams comes back.

Great to see Holroyd, Hayes and Wood given a shot.
Last year we would have had Matautia in the halves and Darryl Clark playing at 13 if we had similar injuries regardless of players missing in the opposition.
That is exactly how you create true competition for places.
I understand the argument that we need to be careful about not over exposing the younger players but they will never be ready without the exposure at this level.
It is now up to the established players to step up and make sure that they lead the younger players.

Back of the ankle?

.

That's going to be an interesting dynamic at half-back. We won't have an attacking half-back, but should control the game a little more if our forwards can get us up the field. I have a feeling the next few weeks will be like a Price team (out of necessity) making yards and putting the ball in the opposition corner for 80 minutes. I can't see us scoring many tries. Whether we can win will depend on whether we can get near enough to the line to pin the other team back.

That looks the same as the team Abe posted the page before

Never noticed.
Was watching the darts last night.

No Dudson and youngsters in. Excellent. This would not have happened last year.

I don't think we have the pack to play the effective version of Price ball, what I'm anticipating is more of the attack to go through Walker and Dufty, expect to see Walker trying more 40/20s, offloads from King and Dufty and Ashton trying to get second phase in broken play.

I expect our defence to be solid without being overly aggressive.

Although I do worry about the amount of changes on our defence, player rotation hits the defence more than anything and the younger players will be targeted like Lindop was last week.

However I've been pleasantly surprised with the selections and I think this may not have immediate success I think it will bear fruit in the longer term.

It's going to be a long process but I'm just looking forward to seeing a change in mentality this season and then quite excited for next season with a new culture hopefully bearing fruit. We need to make sure we commit to this for the foreseeable.

Philbin and Currie have been playing in their comfort zones for a LONG time now - hopefully this will give them a long overdue kick up the arris.

What annoys me about Philbin is the way he often spins round when he hits the defensive line, pretty much guaranteeing that he's not going to break it. I wish he'd just run hard, straight and facing forwards!

You'd think Burgess would be trying to iron this out of his game.

Good to see Hayes in there & not Ratchford, well done Sam!

Do we have anyone else who could provide an impact as a running half? I don't think Dufty is suitable as he'll be targeted in defence, but I'm trying to think if we have anyone else who could fit the bill?

I've mentioned (too many times) that I'd like to see Thewlis tried at Half Back. There must be some reason otherwise it would have been done.

Great to see Hayes starting, my only slight concern is that our half backs are very similar in playing style. As others have said, Walker and Dufty will need to step up.

I wouldn't worry, Hull have hookers and fullbacks pretending to be halves

Apparantley the pitch is a mess. RFL have been in touch about the condition of it. Couldn't do captains run on it yesterday. They've stopped the kids going on it tonight with flags on.

Not sure who's great idea it was to play Penrith on it 48 hours before a SL game but it's ameatur hour once again down at the HJ.

Stupid and amateurish decision to play at the HJ when we have a Home game scheduled 2 Days later, when there is an all weather pitch at Victoria Park which could have been used.

What`s our CEO doing nowadays?

I don’t think there will be much running rugby anyway. Just put a truck full of sand on the middle 5 metres of the pitch and we won’t know the difference.

If he offloaded when doing so it wouldn't be so bad!