Exactly this, run at them hard down the middle and kick in behind them and chase them down and make them have to work hard to make way out their own 10 or 20. We won’t have much flair with no Gale, Reynolds or McNamara but work hard with and more without the ball and we should be more than good enough to grind out a result.

I think it's a good game for Hookem to come in should we need him. Same for Walker or Barron. It's a shame Severs is hurt as we probably could do with spelling our backrowers a bit.

Week off afterwards though so the players can be asked to dig a bit deeper if required.

I felt when lovaduo was with McNamara in the halves he took on a more senior role and looked impressive but the last couple of games with gale v Warrington and Reynolds v Catalan he hasn't really done much in terms of taking the line on he has played really safe so for me get hookem with him and let joey play his natural attacking game and we should have enough

Spot on but i think the whole team has been instructed to play basic rugby for the time being to try and cut out the errors and indiscipline.
Certainly worked against Catalan and we used our forwards well .
Think we can expect to see some Radford era displays going forward and using our forward power until we find a half back combination that works.
Now Taylor is back one change i would make is play Ligi Sao again in the second row so we can interchange Sao,Mau, and Lane otherwise we will burn them out.

As much as I agree with you about rotating the back row, Ligi should stay at prop. He's lead our pack tremendously. For me he's one of the form props in SL right now.

Scott should be back soon. As will Griffin, its these 2 I'd look to shift into the 2nd row when they are back.

On the Radford era comments, we'd be dumb not to use the pack to our benefit. At times we do seem more patient under BH, when we go set for set against teams we look good. We always seemed to have an error or 5 in us under Radford.

If I'm being critical We've maybe got to be a bit more clinical, but it's finding that balance. I'd rather us play conservative and win like we did on Sunday than overplay and lose.

Since scrums finally became an irrelevance over 30 years ago, I no longer see the difference between a Prop and a Second Row.

To me all props/second rows are interchangeable. Typically, they all make a drive in a set of six and all are involved in tackling.

It’s like what Billy Connelly says about Mexican Food, you can order whatever you like off the menu, but ultimately it’s just folded differently and tastes the same.

Hookem has to start for me - keep Connor at 1, Shaul on the wing and Houghton at 9. We're playing well now we're back to basics and any disruption would run the risk of undoing any of the good work. This needs to be a game where we keep it simple, play out the sets and hopefully the game takes care of itself.

I agree. We played well last Sunday. We should make minimal changes. Hookem and Wynne in. The rest stay unchanged.

Well every top level coach disagrees with you. Back row and front row remain different positions.

And Billy Connolly knows nothing about Mexican food.

If Ligi has a minor AC joint issue he should be good to play. Payne Haas suffered a similar injury and isn't expecting to miss any games. The link explains it better The guy is well worth a follow if you've got twitter https://twitter.com/nrlphysio/status/15 ... _bX3g&s=19

If Ligi has a minor AC joint issue he should be good to play. Payne Haas suffered a similar injury and isn't expecting to miss any games. The link explains it better The guy is well worth a follow if you've got twitter https://twitter.com/nrlphysio/status/15 ... _bX3g&s=19

Wynne is back this week.

So looks like the only decision is who plays 7.

We would all like to see Hookem given a game but i wonder if Hodgson will play it safe and use Houghton in the halves.
Interesting to see if Talentboys opinion that Connor only plays well against lower teams is seen on Saturday

Think it would be harsh on Hookem to not give him a chance on Saturday, our best player by some distance in his only start for us (albeit been the best in that game wasn't hard to beat). It's an ideal opportunity to give the young lad a go.

HDM: "Hull FC will name youngster Jacob Hookem and Davy Litten in their 21-man squad to take on Toulouse Olympique this week. The young duo impressed in the Championship with Whitehaven and will now be in contention to play for the Black and Whites on Saturday."

So if we re-ran two previous games and you didn’t see the team sheet, would you be able to tell the difference between the game when Ligi Sao was playing Front Row and when he was playing Second Row?

The difference is how well "props" defend when playing wider out, which is where second rows tend to be, supporting their halfbacks and centres.

Sao played in the middle in the last two games. He played in the second row against Leeds and did very well out of position. He is a quality player Ligi and can play front and back row.

Now, if you'd shown me the team sheet for the last two games without positions I could tell you exactly where on the pitch Hodgeson wanted Manu Ma'u to play. And I would have been right. In fact every one would have been right apart from you who would be scratching your head as to why he wasn't in the middle and Kane Evans wasn't over on the left.

Squad is in. Same as the Cats game for me, with Wynne and Hookem in for Mitch and Reynolds.

I'd be tempted to play Balmforth off the bench instead of JJ too.

I think this game will be a test of our consistency levels. Play like we have against Cats/Wire/Hudds at home and Leeds we should be fine. Serve up HKR or Cas performances and we could be in trouble.

Wynne and Hookem in for Mitch and Reynolds. Hope he goes that way. Rest be the same JJ done well to be fair.

No against JJ on the bench, just excited to see if Balmforth can make the step up and this seems like the ideal game.

He seems to be ripping it up for the academy

Perfect opportunity to see what Hookem and Balmforth can do, particularly with some big decisions contract wise coming up.

I expect only Hookem to play though.

I'd like to see Barron - maybe give McIntosh a rest

I don't think we can risk too many kids.

We have a week off next, plenty of time for resting players

3 kids out of a match day squad of 17 is fine. It's when you have to play 8 or 9 at the same time that it can be bad. Around 14 other high quality players would be fine.

Litten
Barron
Carlos
Wynne
Shaul
Connor
Lovodua
Sao
Mint
Evans
Ma'u
Lane
Brown

Satae
Taylor
Balmforth
Fash

That would be good to see IMO

Completely agree. We've already got 9 unavailable, need the best we have out there