Squads are out

Bulls:
Dane Chisholm steve Crossley Rhys Evans Connor Farrell George Flanagan Matty Garside James Green Sam Hallas Jy Hitchcox Liam Kirk Jordan Lilley Jon Magrin Elliot Minchella Ross Oakes Brandon Pickersgill Ethan Ryan Jake Webster Matty Wildie Mikey Wood


Fev:Ase Boas, Brad Day, Calum Turner, Cameron King, Conor Carey, Danny Maskill, Harry Newman, Jack Ormondroyd, Jack Render, James Lockwood, John Davies, Josh Hardcastle, Josh Walters, Luke Briscoe, Luke Cooper, Scott Wheeldon, Spencer Darley, Thompson Teteh, Watson Boas.

Think Matty Storton very very unlucky to miss out. If Garside or Hallas are selected they have to step up and deliver the goods. Can't have any passengers in this league.

Fev have 4 Dr players. I think their back line looks very strong, so it will be a good battle with ours. From first look their pack looks slightly light weight as I think they have 4 props (is that correct Feb fans) but as I said earlier, we can't have players going through the motions. We have to come our firing if we want the win.

Damn, was really hoping Keyes would be ok for this one.

Based on how we have played in pre-season, Wheeldon, Cooper, Ormondroyd and Lockwood are all "middles", though only Wheeldon of those 4 is a traditional prop shape - Ormondroyd as I'm sure you know is tall and skinny, Cooper is squat, Lockwood is typical back-row shape but is very tough.

Brad Day will play left edge 2nd row and right edge 2nd row will be one of Hardcastle/Walters or Davies - it has been Davies for the last 3 years but the new coaching staff seem to have been playing him as a middle.

Interesting game and not easy to predict as none of the likely 7 Fev starting backs nor the starting hooker were even at the club 3 weeks ago.

Storton is not injured.

It's a pretty strong Bulls team however you want to frame it.

Possible line up:

Pickersgill
Ryan
Evans
Webster
Hitchcox
Illey
Chisholm
Kirk
Wildie
Crossley
Garside
Minchella
Wood

Flanagan, Green, Hallas & Magrin on the bench with Farrell and Oakes missing out.

Very suprised quite a few have Farrell on the bench or even outside the 17!
Hes been great in pre season and absolutely immence in the game at Batley.
For me it a total no brainer, hes a certainty to start in the second row along side Mini

For that to happen would mean Garside misses out completely. He’s not a bench player. As the ball dies a lot with Garside I wouldn’t have minded seeing a Minchella/Farrell second row with Storton off the bench. But Garside/Minchella with Farrell on the bench works for me.

Yeah I agree Farrell starts for me. Garside will interchange with Wood and probably see Minchella go in at loose.

I think both the guys you got from us (Fev), Farrell and Wildie, are players you will appreciate more and more as the season goes on.
Nothing flashy about Farrell but he's usually pretty solid. Wildie has a fine rugby brain and will marshall you really well at hooker, he was one of the players I was most disappointed to lose at the end of lasts eason.

I agree. They both appear to be very good Championship players and have improved our squad.

Farrell defo in for me.

In case of any doubt.Game definitely goes ahead the club have just confirmed.

The sun appears to be out where I am so today may not be as glacial as I thought. Excellent work by the ground staff to get the game on.