Away at Tolouse on Monday followed by away at Leigh on maybe Sat = rough patch.

Will Leigh rest players going into this? If they fancy a shot at not being in the middles we may be better if they are still going well and decide to prioritise the league

So Featherstone at home, Toulouse and Leigh away in 9 days. Now we will see how good our fringe players are.
If we wanted to test the squad then this is a test.

Our game against Leigh and Salford v Toronto look tasty games.I think drawing Leigh away has positives and should be seen as a free hit . We need to see how our pack fares against a big experienced set of forwards.dont particularly rate Leighs back division and I feel we have better 1 - 5 . Half's fairly even I'd say but their pack is certainly bigger,saying that it's a dad's army so maybe couple of rays of hope. Leigh rightly will be favourites but we aren't without a chance I'd say?

Yes City of Manchester Stadium next to Etihad

Should give us an idea where we are at although we will be missing two of our better players.... agree on the backs the game will be won in the forwards but although Leigh's pack is aging it is has a lot of experience crucially

No we (Leigh) can not afford to otherwise we will be out. Neil Jukes will pay you the respect you deserve, no doubt about it for me.

He will field his strongest line up IMO as he especially at Leigh will expect one tough old encounter. He knows his stuff.

I think Barham was more alluding to the fact that will making the Top 8 in SL be considered the priority for Leigh and effectively sacrificing the CC to go all out for that?

Yes that was my thinking, It may provide Leigh with the ideal chance to rest a few key players during what will be a tough season for Leigh.Missing the middle 8's will be high on the list and at this time it could be on.

Harold's just said, No.

Harold however, was effectively answering a misinterpreted question

Not misinterpreted at all.

With Quinlan and Clark already out don't fancy our chances at all. Away at Leigh is going to be a big test.
Leigh beat a few superleague clubs in the cup in 2015. Come the play offs there was no complacency from the Superleague teams. Going out in a competitive showing may not be so bad in the long run.

Well we wanted Super League opposition in the next round to benchmark where we are as a team and that's what we've got. I reckon it will be a close game, especially as there's more than a good chance that Leigh will have at least 3 players banned for that game.

No point in talking down our chances. Hull KR by 2.

There back 5 is stronger than yours

Only Minns from your backs would have a chance to get into their team, even then I'm not sure with Crooks, Tonga and Brown.

Saying that I think it's s good draw, a good test and nothing to lose, as they will be favourites.

I'd rather have your halfbacks than there's though.

Wouldn't be worst thing to happen to you if you went out, as it's not your priority this year.

It's the sort of draw we wanted as a test. However, ateotd, it's just one game. A win won't mean we'll sail through the 8s, and a defeat won't be the end of the world.

Hopefully it'll be a good contest.

Minns (currently) isn't even our best centre. I have no idea if the team is good enough, which is why this is a good game for us, win or lose we might learn something valuable at a time that allows us to fix up owt that needs sorting.

Crooks is rubbish and has been since he left you tonga is injury prone and Brown is ok

Leigh's back 5 are collectively OK. Nothing special and I don't rate Crooks and Hampshire and neither does Darryl Powell it seems. Dawson is workmanlike, but Higson and Brown are very good.

Can't make my mind up about Drinkwater or Reynolds. The latter was gash last season but has looked excellent now he has been given an extended run. Although he sports the same nobby fanny haircut like Higson, Reynolds is a really confident and brave kid with a reasonable amount of skill. Drinkwater is no game breaker.

Leigh's current strength is in the middle with their pack, aided and abetted by 2 excellent hookers in Higham and the niggly Pelissier. Their pack has tightened up defensively this season but offensively are now playing at a high tempo using lots of quick Ptb's and dummy runs to get the team moving forward quickly to allow the backs to execute set plays out wide. They like to make cut out passes out to the wingers in the Paul Cooke mode. Hock has looked unplayable this season near the opposition line.

Is..

We've got a hard easter with Fev and Toulouse before this match, but Leigh haven't got it easy. A local derby on the friday at Salford followed by a visit from the dullers on the monday.
It could be which ever team as the best depth of squad that decides this game.

To be fair I was basing it on watching him last season, where I thought he did pretty well.

Disagree about Crooks, maybe he hasn't developed as much as expected, but still a decent player, who has shown he can be a very good SL player, thought he has started the season well with Leigh.