TRIO OF CHANGES FOR CATALAN MATCH

Hull FC head coach Lee Radford has made a trio of changes to his preliminary squad to face Catalan Dragons this weekend, with Tom Lineham making his long awaited return to the frame for the Black and Whites.

The 22-year old winger has not featured for the Airlie Birds since breaking his right ankle in the victory over Bradford Bulls at the KC Stadium in early March, but is back to fitness for this weekend’s trip to Perpignan.

He replaces Callum Lancaster who drops out the side with a minor training injury despite great form in his first three appearances for the club.

Lineham is joined in the squad by Richard Whiting, who returned from injury in an impressive performance last weekend on dual-registration for Doncaster.

His recovery from a calf injury means he will take the place of Jacob Miller for this weekend’s Super League clash.

Meanwhile Dean Hadley returns to the side after missing out on the preliminary squad for last week's trip to Widnes, Liam Watts will be disappointed to miss out.

Hull FC Squad: Bowden, Crooks, Ellis, Hadley, Heremaia, Horne, Houghton, Lineham, Paea, Paleaaesina, Rankin, Sa, Shaul, Talanoa, Thompson, Tuson, Westerman, Whiting, Yeaman


2 Morgan Escaré
3 Leon Pryce
4 Ben Pomeroy
5 Michael Oldfield
6 Thomas Bosc
8 Olivier Elima
9 Ian Henderson
10 Jeff Lima
11 Zeb Taia
12 Louis Anderson
13 Greg Mounis
17 Elliott Whitehead
18 Daryl Millard
23 Lopini Paea
24 Jason Baitieri
25 Vincent Duport
26 Damien Cardace
29 Benjamin Garcia
34 Sam Williams

Guess Wattsy never found his passport then!

Shaul
Lineham
Crooks
Yeaman
Talanoa
Rankin
Horne
Bowden
Houghton
Paea
Ellis
Tuson
Westerman

Azza
Thompson
Feka
Sa

nail.head

Catalans had a good win over saints, but we played well against widnes, if the lads stick together, we can win this!

#COYH

Poor show from both the club and watts over his passport fiasco. Surely someone at the club checks months in advance that all players have passports?

....he had a passport months ago.

Hardly the club's fault. AFAIK his passport hadn't expired, he just lost it.

Why is it...it's not as though it's a new thing is it going to France....Watts fault simple as.

Houghtons not playing

How can you blame the club for watts losing his passport, would you blame the club if carvell and ellis lost their bus pass ?

cue the village idiot

It's the club's fault that this wasn't picked up in time to do something about it

If any of the players are stupid enough to not make sure they know where their passports are until the week of the game then they are thicker then I gave them credit for.

If anyone at the club doesn't have the sense to check all players have their passports available until the week of the game then it's poor IMO

Then you appear.

I reckon the club probably asked all the players & Watts probably said he had it & knew were it was. Only to realise that he doesn't in fact know where it is.

Oh well that's alright then. Good job another 3 or 4 haven't lost them too. Maybe next time the club should collect them all in from the players to keep them safe

Maybe they'll pop round each week to make sure we've all got our passes, so we can get into the matches.

We might finally have a full game of fast play the balls.

It's probably a blessing in disguise Watts can't find his passport, what a dumb f**k!

I was going to say something similar. If true it's not necessarily a bad thing. Catalans don't like teams that are quick out of dummy half (I suppose no team does, but their forwards tend to be slower to get set than most), either they get caught out and are busted down the middle, or they end up having to give penalties away just to keep their line in tact. We should be able to maintain a better tempo with Azza there.

I think we will miss him and it will show, especially in the heat as i reckon he is Hulls fittest player.

Can Heremia play a full 80? I would doubt it, so who plays hooker for the 2nd spell.

There is a very good player in the academy called Jordan Abdul, he has been playing LF he is a big strong player with an excellent kicking game, he has played most of his career at halfback, I'd have been tempted to have him on the bench to play 25-30 mins at hooker.

If Houghton is out for a period we need to call Cunningham back.

I'm led to believe Houghton's partner,gave birth to a baby boy last night.

Is this is the case I would hope that the club have a plan for the hooking position as the club must of new that this could happen.