I seem to remember Rocky has had a few spells as hooker at Cas - he could take Leeming's place on the bench, and be a similar type of player able to inject a bit of pace at dummy half. Closest like for like swap we have.

Then its a decision on FB and No 6 . Do we keep Eckersley in the team and move him to FB or keep him at Centre , and Adam goes to FB, or keep French at FB and put Farrimond in at 6 - he looks to be able to take a similar running threat and has a short kicking option too close to the line similar to Bevan leaving the organisation to Harry .

I'm favouring putting Farrimond in at 6 as it's the closet like for like with Field and French offering threats at both FB and 6.

Hopefully Wardle will be fine by the time Leigh comes around then it's Eckersley at fb for me if not, French at fb and a decision to be made at 6 between Farrimond and Hampshire

Farrimond all day long,should be a interesting few weeks.

Agree. I [ido[/i think there's a more than decent player in there somewhere. Just needs more consistency (& maybe game time) as well as showing willing.

There probably is but he is now keeping a youngster out of the team so this should be his last season

Now fully fit! should start winning games now

Eckersley looks class and has pace to burn, I'd certainly be playing him in the centre and trying Keighran at 6. We really are blessed at centre at the moment.

Peet seems intent on sticking with Hampshire though (Rocky must have some dirt on him!) despite a very poor first half, knocking on a few times, missing a couple of tackles and jumping the line

I don't think he'll be afraid to drop him if needed. He's been playing an 18 year old kid over him in the halves for weeks now and coming up with every combination possible not to play him. I'd give him the first half of the Leigh game and see how he goes but revert to what you say if it's not working. In fairness to Peet, I think he wanted Eckersley held back last night to give Field that time off at fullback, so there's no saying he doesn't fancy Keighran at stand off anyway. He's shaping up nicely Eckersley though and longer term, I think he can really press for a starting spot. I doubt he'd have any issues with playing on the wing, so both Miski and Keighran could come under threat at some point. There will likely come a time when Peet will need to make a brave call (probably next season though).

Interesting that Jon Wells on commentary last night described Eckersley as being quick but "not got the out and out pace of a Jai Field or a Bevan French" I'm not sure this is true. Zach has a background in athletics and was running 11.3 for the 100m at the age of 15 which is some serious wheels. I think he may well be putting pressure on Miski or Keighran soon in a bid to have him on the field every week as a backline with Bevan, Field, Marshall and Wardle plus Zach would be one of the quickest in the club's history

I reckon he'd beat French pretty easily over 100m but probably not over 10m. He reminds me of Rads in pace terms (and being ginger). I think he'd give Field a run for his money currently over 100m but Field does look like he's not at top speed with a few niggles. Over this next 12 months I expect him to really push Miski and Keighran hard for a spot. I think Miski in particular could be vulnerable because pace is so important and he isn't the quickest winger in the world. It's if you could afford to lose his work from our own end that'll be the question. If Eckersley can show that sort of commitment to taking the hard carries, I think he's got every chance of pushing ahead in the pecking order.

That is absolutely rapid. We've seen enough of him already to see that he has proper express pace. The thing which makes French & Field so different to other players how they combine their unbelievable pace with their agility, balance and speed of thought. They're the areas where Zach will need to improve to get to their level but that's obviously no slight on him at such a young age!

FB site saying Field’s done his knee in training, no idea if genuine

I've read some people saying he has done his knee in training and is out for a month and others saying that he isn't playing tonight but not due to injury. Those latter people are saying it's because they're looking after him on his road back from the hamstring injury and with games in such close proximity they didn't want to risk him and that he will return against Leeds on Saturday.

I hope it's the latter but after the French rumour proved true, who knows?

EDIT - Also, based on the noises the club have made, we haven't really trained much at all between Thursday and tonight so I guess that would reduce the likelihood of him getting injured.

IF it's true we're in trouble ! Shows how wrong I was

Even if there is no new injury, it makes perfect sense for him to sit out the game tonight.

Matt Shaw has confirmed it’s not a new injury and he’ll be back against Leeds.

If he does play on Saturday then the coaching team have played a blinder, to cooly rest him tonight and come away with a big win....nice

He is not injured and will definitely play n Saturday. Forber is available as well.

Shows that the coaching staff have (justified) faith in Eckersley as a stand-in which won't do his confidence any harm, a nice position to be in.

Zac is a top player. Hopefully, the Club has tied him down for a long period.

Surely he will replace Keighran next year?

I recall Keighran signing a 2 year deal - Is there a 1 year in the clubs favour?

Maybe its too early for Zack to be our starting centre, so if we could keep Keighran for 1 more year that would be great, but not at the expense of risking losing Zack.

I think he will take that centre birth in 2026 however he will have to keep earning that right.

Keighran signed for 2 years and the shirt is rightfully his at the moment he will also still only be 28/29 at the start of the 2026 season so will still have plenty of rugby left in him and still be in what should be his career prime.

What goes with his age though will be an expectation of one last big contract and the fact he is on quota which goes against him.

If Eckersley continues like he is though whilst being a tough call to let a centre in Keighran go to accommodate him I’m sure they will make it. I think too it will depend on Miski, I can maybe see ZE taking Miski’s shirt in 2025 which if he does could see him settle there for a further year or 2 before he settles in the centre and he’d still only be 22/23.

Next year….and rest of this with his ability to play wing, centre and fullback he will still get plenty of opportunities to play and continue to develop in the match day 17.

Did Miski not sign a 4 year contract earlier this year? so think talk of ZE taking his shirt for next season are probably a bit premature?

There's no doubt Miski has been carrying an injury throughout most of this season, and tuesday night seemed to be the 1st time we've seen him playing full on and really making good yards with the ball, especially coming out of our won 20m area

Signed till end of 2027. I just think ZE has more chance of displacing Miski than he does Keighran in the short term.

I don't think it was a coincidence that this coincided with Keighran running the ball out more aggressively too. He even got an offload away. Much more a "Toby King" style of performance.