Match Thread: London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers Sunday 1st March 2020

[The Phantom Horseman]

Think it's fair to say we go to London needing big improvement following that lacklustre display against Barrow in the Cup. Webster said in his post-game interview "if we toss that up against London we're going to get flogged" and I'm sure he's right.

This is going to be a totally different type of game to the ones we have played so far and we'll need to be ready. After playing exclusively on heavy pitches in games played at a very steady pace as a result, we now find ourselves on a synthetic surface and the game will be played at a totally different pace. London have played 3 games in a row on plastic and will be up to speed both literally and figuratively, they blitzed York in the early stages last week. One thing's for sure, if our defensive line speed is as sluggish as it was against Barrow London will be all over us on that pitch.

That said, we should hopefully have a much stronger team out on Sunday. Presumably we'll have McLelland back, and maybe Holroyd again in the pack. Don't know where Ferguson stands in his recovery as there had previously been talk he might return against Barrow, but this would be a tough game to come back in especially on 3G given his knee injury history. We should have Worthington back though. Chisholm continues to be badly missed however and it would have been fun seeing him on this pitch.

We need to get in their faces from the start, this isn't the quality London team of the last couple of years but they are still good enough to roll teams on that plastic pitch if you aren't on your game. Hopefully we're smarting from last week and come out firing on all cylinders.

[marklaspalmas]

Big game this. McLelland and one or two big young units from Leeds will make a difference, but we'll just have to be better all round.

Chizzy's a big loss

[The Phantom Horseman]

Squad named via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/FevRoversRLFC/status/1233357420145106944

Still no Ferguson, but a strong-looking trio from Leeds on DR with the welcome return of Alex Sutcliffe as well as McLelland and Holroyd.

Am thinking either Hardcastle or Sutcliffe will play on the right edge back row, so the line-up could be something like:

Hall
Blackmore
Hardcastle
Worthington
Carey/Gale
McLelland
Jouffret
Susino
Bussey/Parata
Harrison
Ferres
Sutcliffe
Lockwood
subs
Bussey/Parata
Albert
Cooper
Holroyd

 

[Private Baldrick]

Ottawell, French, Sweeting and Gale to miss out for me.

[The Phantom Horseman]

London have announced their squad too and it's much stronger than the one that narrowly lost to York last week, with Mitch Allgood possibly in line for his debut and Morgan Smithies, Rob Butler, Kieran Dixon and Will Lovell all set to return.

https://londonbroncosrl.com/news/broncos-return-to-championship-action/

 

[Gareth hock]

34 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

London have announced their squad too and it's much stronger than the one that narrowly lost to York last week, with Mitch Allgood possibly in line for his debut and Morgan Smithies, Rob Butler, Kieran Dixon and Will Lovell all set to return.

https://londonbroncosrl.com/news/broncos-return-to-championship-action/

 

Morgan smith not Morgan smithies 

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 minutes ago, Gareth hock said:

Morgan smith not Morgan smithies 

Oops good shout! Had just been reading something about Smithies and Tom Holroyd who played together at Siddall hence my gaffe

Still, I'm old enough to remember watching Morgan's granddad make his debut, so that's my excuse.

[Glynfev]

Will be interesting to see Webster’s starting 13 particularly in the backs. My first choice centres would be sutcliffe and worthington so both wing spots up for grabs.

Blackmore's defensive lapses may see him on the bench - he is however ideal to bring on to make a real offensive impact.

The pitch will play a big part in the outcome and the game will give a good marker  on we can expect this season.

[elppaxr2i]

Heard Ferguson is not injured and has had a minor falling out with some people at the club - he is not happy with the methods used in training............

But onto Sunday cant see us getting anything from the capital Sunday think we are in for a bit of a towelling in my opinion 

[marklaspalmas]

Given the four youngsters will be left out, our 17 has one too many three-quarters and is one forward short. 

[gingdong]

12 hours ago, elppaxr2i said:

Heard Ferguson is not injured and has had a minor falling out with some people at the club - he is not happy with the methods used in training............

But onto Sunday cant see us getting anything from the capital Sunday think we are in for a bit of a towelling in my opinion 

That is nonsense Dale is waiting for a scan on the leg he injured in training,, Dale is a good pro and if he didnt like the training methods he would keep it to himself and get on with it, he is very frustrated with the injury and is hoping its not too serious after the scan, hope this helps

[The Phantom Horseman]

13 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Given the four youngsters will be left out, our 17 has one too many three-quarters and is one forward short. 

To be honest I think the problem is we still don't have a second hooker. Hats off to Bussey for his versatility but I don't think any of us really think hooker is his best position.  Sutcliffe or Hardcastle at right edge back row is fine imo, but if we had another hooker we could use Bussey differently.

 

[Private Baldrick]

5 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

To be honest I think the problem is we still don't have a second hooker. Hats off to Bussey for his versatility but I don't think any of us really think hooker is his best position.  Sutcliffe or Hardcastle at right edge back row is fine imo, but if we had another hooker we could use Bussey differently.

 

Wonder what has happened to the much mooted youngster from Leeds, Corey Johnson is it?

[Steve Slater]

13 hours ago, elppaxr2i said:

But onto Sunday cant see us getting anything from the capital Sunday think we are in for a bit of a towelling in my opinion 

Looking at the squad and the probable starting 17, it looks very strong, even without Chizzy.

[The Phantom Horseman]

22 minutes ago, Private Baldrick said:

Wonder what has happened to the much mooted youngster from Leeds, Corey Johnson is it?

I think he has been injured.

[sentoffagain2]

29 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

To be honest I think the problem is we still don't have a second hooker. Hats off to Bussey for his versatility but I don't think any of us really think hooker is his best position.  Sutcliffe or Hardcastle at right edge back row is fine imo, but if we had another hooker we could use Bussey differently.

 

Agree we are desperate for another Hooker Jack is wasted at acting Half Back and much better in the middle.He takes some tackling and gets off some offloads while being tackled.I would play Bussey Loose Forward with Locky in the second row no comparison in passing ability between them,Bussey is a natural ball handler while bless him Locky has to work at it.

[marklaspalmas]

Just now, sentoffagain2 said:

Agree we are desperate for another Hooker Jack is wasted at acting Half Back and much better in the middle.He takes some tackling and gets off some offloads while being tackled.I would play Bussey Loose Forward with Locky in the second row no comparison in passing ability between them,Bussey is a natural ball handler while bless him Locky has to work at it.

Good point. Bussey's versatility is a great boon to our squad in terms of his ability to plug gaps.

[rhinos78]

1 hour ago, Private Baldrick said:

Wonder what has happened to the much mooted youngster from Leeds, Corey Johnson is it?

Rumoured by some fellow Leeds fans who are usually well informed that he dosnt want to play the game anymore and is considering quitting rugby alltogether. Having some time off to get his thoughts together.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Steve Slater said:

Looking at the squad and the probable starting 17, it looks very strong, even without Chizzy.

I agree, but London will have their strongest team of the season too judging on their squad. A couple of recent promo videos highlighted what we are up against in terms of preparation, London put one up that was filmed outdoors during daylight doing all sorts of training exercises on their plastic pitch, highlighting the fact that they're full time, we put one out a couple of weeks ago showing us training indoors at night with the obvious limitations (not that the centre of execellence isn't great), with all the rain recently it sounds like we have had very little opportunity to do outdoors work with ball in hand.

Webster was emphasising in his interview on RoversTV this week that the best of us won't be seen until later in the season and that he doesn't think this weekend's game will define our season. We only really clicked late last season when Chisholm & McLelland played a string of games together and the links with the likes of Day/Sutcliffe/Walters etc started working. Put it this way, if we can get a result on Sunday we'll be in great shape for the rest of the season.

[elppaxr2i]

4 hours ago, gingdong said:

That is nonsense Dale is waiting for a scan on the leg he injured in training,, Dale is a good pro and if he didnt like the training methods he would keep it to himself and get on with it, he is very frustrated with the injury and is hoping its not too serious after the scan, hope this helps

Fair enough then

 

[paff]

9 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I agree, but London will have their strongest team of the season too judging on their squad. A couple of recent promo videos highlighted what we are up against in terms of preparation, London put one up that was filmed outdoors during daylight doing all sorts of training exercises on their plastic pitch, highlighting the fact that they're full time, we put one out a couple of weeks ago showing us training indoors at night with the obvious limitations (not that the centre of execellence isn't great), with all the rain recently it sounds like we have had very little opportunity to do outdoors work with ball in hand.

Webster was emphasising in his interview on RoversTV this week that the best of us won't be seen until later in the season and that he doesn't think this weekend's game will define our season. We only really clicked late last season when Chisholm & McLelland played a string of games together and the links with the likes of Day/Sutcliffe/Walters etc started working. Put it this way, if we can get a result on Sunday we'll be in great shape for the rest of the season.

Going to go against the grain and say fev win by at least 8 , probably just a bias opinion but i think we are a strong team and can turn them over UTR 

 

[J Phil Loxton]

Broncos   32    Fev  18

Try............McLelland

Mom........Hall

Att............903

 

[gazza77]

No Parata. That's a bit of aa blow, playing without a hooker. Let's hope Bussey has a good game. 

[jamescolin]

1 hour ago, gazza77 said:

No Parata. That's a bit of aa blow, playing without a hooker. Let's hope Bussey has a good game. 

What is the line up?

[gazza77]

21 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

What is the line up?

https://twitter.com/FevRoversRLFC/status/1234116180136353792?s=20