We fell off in defence a bit without BK so if he doesn't make it for Thursday it will be a big loss to us.

Ben's in 19 for Thursday...tough cookie.

Too tough for his own good at times. Will be touch & go if he makes it but he's trying hard & RM giving him as much time as possible to prove he's fit enough.

If its just a strain and we can get 40 mins out of him, with a 10 day rest, it might just work, but he'll ache like hell on Friday morning, more than usual.
The POR pitch is a concern though, sloped and uneven, its got tear potential, and I doubt we will be able to rotate him with his groin seizing up everytime he sits down.

It's nowhere near as risky as when Matt Calland played Miles Greenwood over at Widnes though, when everyone in the ground could see he couldn't open his stride or set off any quicker than a cruise liner, that knee cost him dearly, he was on fire that season, never fully recovered in my opinion, real shame.

I'm sure Richard knows what he's doing, and Ben will give his all if selected.

Total respect for BK, no doubt making himslef available, as a born leader does. Sometimes though as a coach you have to think of the bigger picture. Cup game is great for possible short term revenue if we did win and got a home tie against a well supported SL team in next round but to me those two consecutive games againstToulouse and London could define our season and a much bigger prize if we got to middle 8's. As I have said before I would have BK in my side every time and those games are more important to the team and the club than the one off at Fev-unless of course he is passed absolutely fit to play.

Just that.

Couldn't tell if Ben was limping or not at the Shay tonight and decided not to ask "how's your groin Ben" in front of most of the rest of the team as I wondered if my purely sporting context question may have been miss understood.

He said last night that he wouldn't be playing.

He failed the fitness test and he is gutted.

To be fair to RM he gave him the maximum time possible to recover.

He has more than a strain but hopefully he will be good to go next weekend.

Correct decision. How many times have we tried to rush a player back only to see it backfire on us?

Well i was hoping Rob would score a hat trick on his 250TH CAREER APPEARANCE but never mind also Steve Tyrer kicked his 500TH Goal for FAX well done to them both