Burrow confirmed out according to twitter. Would have thought whoever comes in for him (probably Walters) plus Handley to drop out. So just Baldwinson in for Jjb from last week's team.

I agree i thought the Barrow game in particular was the one where most of the first team squad could have got rested. Anyway, this is Mac and his way of doing things, like his bench rotation it's strange and doesn't make sense at times but no point getting hung up on it we have had 6 years of it now it likely won't change any time soon

Players should only be rested if they are carrying an injury, otherwise play our strongest team.

Only way we'll win a trophy is by playing as a fully cohesive unit which we've only done in dribs and drabs so far. A week off for half the first team won't improve us. Practice, practice, practice is what I'd run with.

I can see the reasons for both options, strongest available and resting a few. Whichever way we went it's hardly not understandable to the point of having a moan about it.

You should beat Fev comfortably. Earlier in the year both ourselves and Fev were without your Loan/DR players and we lost 13-21. Last week we played them and the first half ended 12-10 to us. Baring in mind we are so poor. Fev without your DR players (as I assume they will be today) are like us without your loans. Very poor. You should be resting key players like the majority of you have said and you'd still win barring a miracle!

Of course we should win. I don't suppose for one minute that McDermott's picking a strong side because he thinks we might lose. A much more likely scenario is that we've fired very intermittently in attack and our defence has been patchy. This is our final chance for an opposed run out where the first team can work on a few things while not under extreme pressure from the likes of Cas, Sts, Salford, Hull and Wigan (our remaining regular fixtures) before we have the pleasure of meeting all these again, plus a couple more, in the super 8s. And when - if - we get through this to the business part of the season I don't really think it'll have made a shred of difference whether a few players have been rested for this one game. Just my view; as Printer says there are two ways McDermott could have played this and at the end of the day it is his call.

That's so far from the truth it's laughable. Firstly, we're the only Championship team through to the quarter finals of the Cup and that's been achieved without any DR players. secondly, some of our better performances this season have come when we have had no DR players, or maybe only one.

The DR players we have used have all done well without necessarily being much of an upgrade (if at all) on our own guys.

As for games against Bradford...the first game was in a mudbath and Fev played poorly partly because we didn't have a recognised hooker and were pulled for six forward passes from dummy half. The second game, which you conveniently ignore, we had only one DR player (Ormondroyd off the bench) and the game was all over before he even came on, with three tries in the first 15 minutes and seven in the first half. We did indeed play moderately at Odsal last week but that was always on the cards five days before a big Cup game and we still won 36-12 away.

It will be no surprise for sure if we get hammered tonight, but it will have nothing to do with DR players or the lack of them. Don't get me wrong, the likes of Baldwinson and Ormondroyd are very handy to have because we have a small squad, and they haven't let us down at all, but they aren't major difference makers.

I would say that is absolutely spot on.
Baldwinson and Ormanroyd probably added sometihng to your team in order to rest or compensate for injuries or to add competition for places.
I doubt for one minute they have made such a difference to you winning games.
Fev are a solid championship side that will give their all tonight.
It depends which Leeds side turns up as to how many we win by.With the quality of our team I would be shocked if we lost.
IMO we could have rested at least 4 ( Golding, Cuthbertson, Parcell and Galloway) and still had enough to win.

Not sure we learned a huge amount from the first half, apart from the fact that Ash Handley isn't a centre...