Butterworth looked good when he played at 7 against Fax last year. I'd prefer him playing there instead of Smith if Chisholm/Keyes aren't quite fit.

Hallas and Butterworth as starter and bench hooker for me. Hallas to distribute and control the ruck with Butterworth coming on and blitzing them down the middle when the defence is tired/on the back foot due to our forward momentum.

In terms of halves for the first game if Keyes or Chisholm aren't fit I'd personally like to see Milnes have a go with the fit halfback. So Milnes/Chisholm or Keyes/Milnes. See how he goes and it gives us a kicker if Keyes is out.

If both halfbacks are out for Round 1 I'd like us to use the same halfbacks when we won in pre-season in Smith/Minchella to keep a little consistency there.

Ahh, we can now start to dream about some consistency? Must mean we have a decent well balanced (relatively) uninjured squad that want to play for us. all hail chalo.

Must say it's great to be talking about the actual rugby again.

Evenin' all. Even as an outsider, it's great to read you doing so. The good ship seems a lot more buoyant now that it's not being sucked down the Alley-Alley-Oh. Good luck to all who sail in her.

A much happier read recently.

Now about this hopping into bed with Toronto thing......

I'd go with that, but I when the interchange does happen I'd expect Hallas to drop into the back of the pack rather than be a straight swap as he did quite often last year.

His tackling and workrate we cannot afford to lose, especially against the better L1 teams.

I hope we use this season as a time to blood as many youngsters as possible. Yes, I know there will be some tough games this year but there must be a few games we can give the likes of Milnes, Pickersgill and others a decent run so they get a season under their belts for hopefully the next season in the championship. I am not taking it lightly but surely D1 should give Kear that chance and I won't be fully happy with Chisholm till he has played a dozen games without pulling up.

The title of this topic could be taking a twist that nobody saw coming

Ooh sounds interesting.

New hooker on his way

Any clues?

Scotty's escaped the judiciary and, prodigal son like, he's returning to Odsal?

...or one of our players had been caught down Thornton Rd looking for an hairy hand?

Mickey Higham doesn't really want to retire and signs for us again! Part time basis, combining his role at Leigh during the day?

Aye, that setup worked fantastically with Richie Mathers.