Abdul to Johnstone doesn't have to be any more threatening to us than Croft to Handley is for them. Handley has been in sensational form this year - England winger form.

Tariq Sims was someone I really hoped Leeds would sign, he's awesome on his day and the kind of second row we really lack. Whether he stays on the field consistently is another matter.

I'll be happier IF Holroyd is back and mostly fit. He provides some aggression and mass and he's difficult to play against.

Echo the concerns over Oledski - the way he reacted on the field indicates he felt it was bad. We have such terrible luck with injuries at Leeds honestly.

Yeh, let's give them both 7 minutes each

3 and a half each.

We have a lot of close games - lots of backs to the wall defence, lots of fatigue, avoidance of slowing the game down. It won't explain them all but neither will it help.

If we can stay reasonably fit we are a chance of doing well this year.

Most of us said about being another prop short - it's OK Rohan saying "oh well, injuries..." but props are in heavy traffic and likely to get injured (or banned, is it turns out). This situation was quite predictable, and he doesn't sound confident that there is much in the academy behind TNW, or that Hudson will play soon (or even if Hudson will make the grade at all). When we have to resort to Donno at prop in round 2, we can say it's gone wrong.

We have academy/reserve cover in most other positions other than prop. It currently looks like we came into this season with TNW as the only genuine prop reserve, and he is a couple of years off maturity at SL level. Ruan is big but is he more of a second row again really?

Anyway with injury clouds over Oledski, Holroyd and Lisone banned, this game looks harder than it might have been.

They would be favourites if we were fully fit. Very tough game now, but great challenge too. Let’s see….

We got this

Like the confidence, but that’s not based on what we’ve seen so far!

If RS picks my side, I reckon Leeds by 20

We do look light on in the front row, but we're missing three of our first choice props plus Donaldson. Most sides would struggle to have decent reserves for that. I agree that we look a player light there though, especially with the depth we have in the back row by comparison. I wonder if keeping Bentley was partly down to concern about Gannon long term?.

I understand why he did it, but I think Smith started this season a bit over-cautious. Donaldson seems a nice guy and all that, but he's not a prop, and not SL standard except as last-gasp backup. In that sense his suspension is a good thing IMO as the safety blanket of picking an 'experienced' (but hugely limited) player has been taken away. We've seen coaches persevere with rubbish experienced players before - very recently in fact - and it never really works.

Should just add though that I wouldn't be surprised if the plan was to have one or all of Ruan, TNW and even Hudson in the first team regularly by the end of the year. I just can't believe that we would go with Donaldson first reserve prop as the plan for the whole season.

This cycle is pretty predictable these days:

Cautious optimism
Excitement
Confidence
Arrogance
Poor performance
Defeat
Anger
Frustration
Excuses
Further disappointments
More excuses
Glimmer of hope
Cautious optimism

And so it goes on.....

You're not a super league coach to be fair, and maybe smith knows more than you do

I’m trying to remain positive but this last few seasons we don’t seem to have much luck with injuries. Whilst injuries aren’t exclusive to us ,it seems we seem to receive more than our fair share. Over at Hull the black and whites over the last few seasons also seem to be in the same situation.