Surprised the Thread not started such is the enthusiasm at the moment
For me a tricky match and yes they have beaten Saints and almost toppled the SLs high achievers - KR

With a likely inexperienced 7 and 6 I think we will
win 1-12 points max

Connor
MacIntosh
Carlos
Wynne
Shaul
Lover
Macca/Hookem/Mint
Sao
Mint/JJ
Evans
Ma'u
Lane
Fash
Subs
Brown
Satae
Taylor
JJ/Scott

If Macca not fit I'd play Hookem but think Hodgo will go with Mint.

Be classic Hull to play two hookers at halfback.

I'd hope those days are over.

Hodgson admitted last season that he should have played more.

Perfect game for him to start his first game.

Hookem will play, why disrupt the hooking department further when you've got a good young prospect ready to play.

Houghton passed his HIA.

Wonder if Corey Norman will play?

Norman is waiting on his visa. Hopefully it takes a little longer. He's come up with a few clutch plays in the NRL.

A Gigot/Norman partnership will be interesting to watch. Not much control but plenty of flair.

The longer this week goes on the more it feels like a potential banana skin. Question marks over Wynne and McNamara.

I'm sure I'd heard BH say after the game that Sao may have an issue with his AC joint.

No disrespect but they're bottom of the table for a reason. They've just been beaten by the worst Leeds team in donkey's years so we shouldn't be seeing things that aren't there. We've just had a great performance against one of the best teams in the league so we just need to play OUR game and the points should be ours.

It is a definite banana skin game for us, if I remember rightly the last time we played a newly promoted team at home (Leigh) they beat us, and it was their only away win of the season!

Do what we did against Catalan and we’ll be fine. Get our forwards running hard and straight, kick for territory, and points will come. Without recognised halves we have to win by brute force.

Exactly this, run at them hard down the middle and kick in behind them and chase them down and make them have to work hard to make way out their own 10 or 20. We won’t have much flair with no Gale, Reynolds or McNamara but work hard with and more without the ball and we should be more than good enough to grind out a result.

I think it's a good game for Hookem to come in should we need him. Same for Walker or Barron. It's a shame Severs is hurt as we probably could do with spelling our backrowers a bit.

Week off afterwards though so the players can be asked to dig a bit deeper if required.

I felt when lovaduo was with McNamara in the halves he took on a more senior role and looked impressive but the last couple of games with gale v Warrington and Reynolds v Catalan he hasn't really done much in terms of taking the line on he has played really safe so for me get hookem with him and let joey play his natural attacking game and we should have enough

Spot on but i think the whole team has been instructed to play basic rugby for the time being to try and cut out the errors and indiscipline.
Certainly worked against Catalan and we used our forwards well .
Think we can expect to see some Radford era displays going forward and using our forward power until we find a half back combination that works.
Now Taylor is back one change i would make is play Ligi Sao again in the second row so we can interchange Sao,Mau, and Lane otherwise we will burn them out.

As much as I agree with you about rotating the back row, Ligi should stay at prop. He's lead our pack tremendously. For me he's one of the form props in SL right now.

Scott should be back soon. As will Griffin, its these 2 I'd look to shift into the 2nd row when they are back.

On the Radford era comments, we'd be dumb not to use the pack to our benefit. At times we do seem more patient under BH, when we go set for set against teams we look good. We always seemed to have an error or 5 in us under Radford.

If I'm being critical We've maybe got to be a bit more clinical, but it's finding that balance. I'd rather us play conservative and win like we did on Sunday than overplay and lose.

Since scrums finally became an irrelevance over 30 years ago, I no longer see the difference between a Prop and a Second Row.

To me all props/second rows are interchangeable. Typically, they all make a drive in a set of six and all are involved in tackling.

It’s like what Billy Connelly says about Mexican Food, you can order whatever you like off the menu, but ultimately it’s just folded differently and tastes the same.

Hookem has to start for me - keep Connor at 1, Shaul on the wing and Houghton at 9. We're playing well now we're back to basics and any disruption would run the risk of undoing any of the good work. This needs to be a game where we keep it simple, play out the sets and hopefully the game takes care of itself.

I agree. We played well last Sunday. We should make minimal changes. Hookem and Wynne in. The rest stay unchanged.

Well every top level coach disagrees with you. Back row and front row remain different positions.

And Billy Connolly knows nothing about Mexican food.

If Ligi has a minor AC joint issue he should be good to play. Payne Haas suffered a similar injury and isn't expecting to miss any games. The link explains it better The guy is well worth a follow if you've got twitter https://twitter.com/nrlphysio/status/15 ... _bX3g&s=19

If Ligi has a minor AC joint issue he should be good to play. Payne Haas suffered a similar injury and isn't expecting to miss any games. The link explains it better The guy is well worth a follow if you've got twitter https://twitter.com/nrlphysio/status/15 ... _bX3g&s=19

Wynne is back this week.

So looks like the only decision is who plays 7.

We would all like to see Hookem given a game but i wonder if Hodgson will play it safe and use Houghton in the halves.
Interesting to see if Talentboys opinion that Connor only plays well against lower teams is seen on Saturday

Think it would be harsh on Hookem to not give him a chance on Saturday, our best player by some distance in his only start for us (albeit been the best in that game wasn't hard to beat). It's an ideal opportunity to give the young lad a go.

HDM: "Hull FC will name youngster Jacob Hookem and Davy Litten in their 21-man squad to take on Toulouse Olympique this week. The young duo impressed in the Championship with Whitehaven and will now be in contention to play for the Black and Whites on Saturday."

So if we re-ran two previous games and you didn’t see the team sheet, would you be able to tell the difference between the game when Ligi Sao was playing Front Row and when he was playing Second Row?