I did fancy us to win before the squad was announced, but now there’s no Miloudi or Scott I’m not as confident. Radford knows more than me though so we’ll have to just hope he’s got it right . Maybe he’s gone on what he’s seen in pre season .

Wow....You must Really under rate Rovers even if you think those two would make a big difference

If he had gone on what he saw preseason then several players like Dawson,Langtree,Griffin and even Thomo who looks like he is running hard but is so easy to tackle wouldnt be in the starting 17.
Seems to me if you look ok in training then you get the nod.
Problem is Radford has his favourites and if you are not on the list like Miloudi you may as well move on.
Their forwards will roll us down the field and a big chance we could be nilled in this game as apart from penalty kicks i cant see us scoring.

Good luck Friday then

First game of the season, poor weather conditions, proper levels the playing field if you ask me.

Are you the doom and gloomer that had a pop at Radford the other night on Humberside...

Not got much hope really but would be nice to get proved wrong.
The game is more levelled up in the fact that the weather could be shocking and it's the first game of the season, but I think the home advantage will see Rovers through.

I’m honestly thinking we could lose 24-6 and we see the same players at the end shaking their heads and looking at the ground
Then LR saying they had work to do ahead of a big next 3 matches
I think it will be more of the same as we’ve done nothing to change what we had
Expecting different outcomes with no changes is a little futile
However I think we really do have to win this one to get the team back in the game mentally and shake off last season
It’s in their hands

Injuries really hurt us last season, no one can overlook that. But my big concern is that everyone in the club seems to have convinced themselves that everything is rosy in the garden and that everything will be great when we have our key players on the field. Injuries or no injuries there are glaring issues that we needed to address, and I just hope that this has been recognised. We have some outstanding individuals who will win games on their own but it papers over the cracks.

I was concerned when the brochure for the memberships came out and it almost came across as them patting themselves on the back for making the top 8. Iirc it said something about other teams finding themselves in the middle 8 with similar injuries.

I hope that this is just the official line and that internally they are embarrassed by some of their performances last year and desperate to put it right. But I worry that its all just been blamed on injuries and brushed under the carpet. If that's the case this could be a long painful season.

All that said I will keep an open mind until I've seen us a couple of times.

Nope afraid not. I’m not a doom and gloomer either as have been supportive of Radford but nothing is changing. After watching the pre season games we are still making the same errors and seem to lack any real attacking structures.

For me just seeing a few differences would have given me some confidence going in to this season.
Whilst injuries did us in the end last season it covered a lot of things that we lacked in the way we play.
I hope I’m proved wrong but just think this year may not be any better than last and have seen little to show othrwise.

The filth are practically even favourite with us for the match after being way off with the bookies
We should have the edge
How many Rovers players are new to the team and how many injuries do they have

6 new signings, including a new half back and atkin moving to fullback. Our spine is pretty new, and with no lunt we have either addy or lawler spelling at hooker. 1st game, derby, crap weather, weak spine could make things challenging.

We badly miss Quinlan & Lunt. Also missing who would play probably are scruton and jewitt and it probably works in our favour jewitt isnt playing as he is a hothead and probably got a binning or two with what happened with Sammut/connor

My only prediction is that Craig Hall will score a try, possible a length of the field job.

I see the Red S**te winning by 10pts