On balance of probabilities it'll be a patched up side. At a guess

Rankin
Lancaster
Michaels
Yeaman
Talanoa
Pryce
Sneyd
Watts
Houghton
Paea
Hadley
Minichiello
Abdull?

Feka
Bowden
Thompson
Cunningham?

Assumes Shaul, Sa, Lineham, Ellis, Westerman, Whiting and Green unavailable. Good luck to whoever has to mark Carney.

We've got to wind Carney up. A real shame Sa won't be there to do it.

Judging by what I heard Radford say, the injuries picked up on Friday aren't likely to keep them out for Cas, I'm thinking Ellis will be out though. Lineham should be allowed to rest and get his fitness up again so give Lancaster a go as that kid can score tries for fun. Shaul I reckon should be back in fit now that he's had a few weeks rest but I think Rankin is doing a decent enough job.

Problem is 4 games in 15 days with lots of players with knocks/injections. Needs careful management.

Radford will have more of an eye on the Easter programme to try and get Ellis.Westerman,Green and Shaul fit rather than risk them at Cas.
If Hadley is fit from the Groin injury and Cunningham cleared your team for Cas is pretty much on the mark but I think Lineham will be fit to play.
Feka needs to step up as Cas and start hitting hard in the tackle

If Cunningham isn't fit we have to give Howarth a run out to give Houghton a break during the game, otherwise what was the point of signing him?

I agree the likes of Ellis, Westerman etc shouldn't be risked if they aren't fit.

What did Lineham do? I like Lancaster but Lineham is invaluable carrying it off our line, it's like another forward. We lose a lot of physicality with Lancaster there instead. I'd still like to see Talanoa at centre with Lancaster outside him.

The one who sounded like he would definitely be out is Ellis, the rest were minor knocks. If we were riding high I might say save them for Easter, but this is another must win game.

Line hak appared to be carrying a knock all game, but he does have an unusual walk so it's hard to tell!

Problem is, is Lancaster up to marking Carney? He might score tries and have pace to burn but has his defence being worked on? Lineham v Carney is a good match up and with Talanoa inside of him that's a tough edge to break through. Having Micheals (great tackler) alongside Lancaster gives us a a lot of pace on that flank.

Personally I'd rather have Rankin in and isn't he 'in form', so it's down to Shaul to oust him from the starting line up, that's what Radford stated how things would be no?

I think Thompson will play loose if Westerman is out. Abdul could make the bench though.

westerman and green were dead leg injuries. these are funny things as they can recover in a couple of days, but equally it can take a couple of weeks. very hard to say whether they will be back for cas

Carney could be banned, got sin binned for fighting with Chase.

Must win game for me, need to play the best team possible, forget looking towards Easter weekend, need the big guns on the pitch

Wouldn't risk anyone with iffy injuries. Madness risking them

We look quicker without Westerman. I'd give the 13 shirt to Thompson.

It certainly looked that way, I wonder if we run too much through Westerman and once he went off, things certainly looked quicker. Last season when we had poor halfs, he was needed more to be a ball player, but now with Rankin, Pryce and Sneyd he doesn't need to play that role. I'd be tempted to switch him out wide again and use his running game there. Could move Ellis up to prop if needed.

There's no reason for him to be due to the fact Chase went in with his knees after Carney was tackled. If anything it should be Chase banned.

If he landed some punches he'll cop a ban no matter who started it.

Carney - no charge "Player behaves aggressively towards an opponent following a tackle. Player pushes out towards an opponent and attempts to prolong confrontation."

Talanoa - no charge

2 other Cas players, Cook and Massey, are charged.

Cook EGP 1 match.

This and the Derby are massive in shaping our season. Win both and looking at the other fixtures we will likely be 4th (at least joint 4th), we then play Saints with a day's extra rest followed by 3 winnable games and could potentially be safely in the top 4 by the end of April....

However, lose them both and we will be bottom. Confidence is low and the games that looked winnable now look alot harder and carry huge significance. By the end of April we could be cut adrift.

Big week for the club and Radford.

therfl.co.uk/news/article/31849/ ... -suspended both massey and cook banned for the game on friday night

therfl.co.uk/news/article/31849/ ... -suspended both massey and cook banned for the game on friday night

Rumour is tonight from Testimonial Dinner (not from Burnsey

) that Ellis is likely to be out for a few weeks but everyone else on the injured list is coming through.

All but Sa and Whiting I assume?

yeh just meant those injured last week sorry just got a few texts from the event!!

In that case, my team (however won't be Radford's team) would be:

Rankin
Lineham
Michaels
Talanoa
Lancaster
Pryce
Sneyd
Paea
Houghton
Watts
Minichiello
Westerman
Thompson

Bowden
Feka
Green
Cunningham

Reasons being, as much as I like Shaul I think we look a lot slicker in attack with Rankin linking in. It's down to preferance whether you want the speed and evasiveness of Shaul or the hand and brains of Rankin, for me, for now, it's Rankin (just).

A Talanoa and Lancaster combo offers a bit more speed and dynamism than Yeaman/Talanoa. Could be seen as a defensive weak link, but I'd rather see us take to game to Cas rather than be defensive. Besides Webster and Clare (their probable opposition) don't really strike fear into me.

I'd also go with Westerman out wider. Last season he was very good in a ball playing 13 role, if Shaul is full back that's fine, but if Rankin is playing I think it's a case of too many cooks. We don't really have any other second rows with good hands who bust tackles and offload, so have Westerman play that role on the left and use Thompson as an extra prop.

Big bench. If Cunningham is fit we need him to be spelling Houghton. He can't keep doing 80 minutes, especially now Easter is upon us.

Just my 2 penneth. I'd be suprised if that's actually what happens, but it's what I'd like to see.