Pre-Season Warm Up. Featherstone Rovers v Leeds. Sunday 16th January 2022.

[jamescolin]

So what is the line up? Just info but no actual postions named. 

[Cardypaul]

Guess they will announce that just before kickoff 

[POR]

51 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

So what is the line up? Just info but no actual postions named. 

Colin as usually squad named in numerical  order this week starting with briscoe 2 to gill 25

[The Phantom Horseman]

Both starting line-ups named already (it's pre-season so nothing to lose). BM said in his interview on RoversTV that nothing too much should be read into who starts the game.

Fev's starting 13:
Hall, Briscoe, Hardcastle, Hellewell, Gale, Holmes, Smith, Kopczak, Wildie, Lockwood, Moors, Sene-Lefao, Bussey
 

subs: Jones, Davies, Trout, Ferres, Cooper, Field, Gill, McConnell

The Leeds 17 does look very strong.

[The Phantom Horseman]

If there is an interesting note to the starting 13, it's that Junior Moors appears to be starting at back row. Might not be significant but he alternated between middle and back row (where he probably had his best games) last season, so might be an early clue as to where BM sees him playing.

Edited January 15 by The Phantom Horseman

[Monkeymagic22]

Main thing in these friendlies is that we don't pick up any injuries. Results are pretty much irrelevant, as illustrated in the Jon Bastian era.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 14/01/2022 at 11:38, fevnut said:

If you've not been there for years you will get a surprise at the big changes to the stadium and it was largely achieved and built by volunteers! They were known as the 'Stand Gang'.

 

Well done fevnut and all the volunteers! I've actually been since the Scarborough FC stand was put up so I've seen your good work

First time I've been there with my kids.... also first time in a long time I've been not watching Broncos !

[haskey]

I see Chisholm is not down to play, so it would appear that the hearing has still not taken place.?

[jamescolin]

33 minutes ago, haskey said:

I see Chisholm is not down to play, so it would appear that the hearing has still not taken place.?

When is it?

[Fevrover]

How longs a piece of string ? Didn't take em long to find him guilty though.

[Robin Evans]

58 minutes ago, haskey said:

I see Chisholm is not down to play, so it would appear that the hearing has still not taken place.?

I think he can use a friendly as one off his ban.... if I remember correctly I think he can count too friendlies against his ban which would leave him 6 to do if he doesn't appeal or appeals and loses and doesn't get his ban increased.

[jamescolin]

I am getting a feeling that they will reach a compromise. They will suspend him for the two Friendlies and then say he has served enough suspension.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Think McDermott will have been pretty happy with how we went today. Leeds kept their starting pack on for the entire first half and until they scored a minute before half time the score was 6-12, so acknowledging it's just a pre-season game it's encouraging that we weren't blown away by a SL side, especially after we took Kopczak and Lockwood off after about 20 minutes.

They took just about all their first team off at half time so had a team of younger fringe players plus three or four older or more established players, and we took JSL and Moors off for a breather at half time. Leeds had the better of those opening 10 minutes but then we started to bring some of our first-choice forwards back on and just about had the upper hand afterwards, though the Leeds fringe team (most of whom have some sort of SL experience) played very well.

Can't read too much into pre-season games but I did think it was interesting that when Ferres came on he played in the middle with Junior playing back row, I'd quite like to see this if it continues as I think Moors is the bigger threat out wide whilst Ferres has the size to contribute in the middle and also a very good pair of hands.

 

[haskey]

Good post PH , Yes I think Mcdermott will be happy with the overall performance, Leeds did not blow us away in the first half with their top team out , so that was a plus, together with a class act from returning Briscoe. I do feel that the refereeing standards are way below what we should expect from our whistlers.., and . of course. no injuries.

[Andrew Vause]

13 hours ago, haskey said:

Good post PH , Yes I think Mcdermott will be happy with the overall performance, Leeds did not blow us away in the first half with their top team out , so that was a plus, together with a class act from returning Briscoe. I do feel that the refereeing standards are way below what we should expect from our whistlers.., and . of course. no injuries.

I'm not sure about no injuries. Holmesy came back on after  half time with his hamstring heavily strapped he was limping badly at the end of the match. With Dane out and Tom possibly injured the half back options at the start of the season may be a little on the thin side. 

I thought it was an entertaining afternoon's rugby yesterday. We bombed a few chances in the first half when having repeat sets on their line. Some of the penalty decisions for either team were a bit mystifying. Rovers did well down the left in the 2nd half and with a bit of luck the scoreline could have been even closer. A bit more match time in their legs and a as mentioned earlier a settled half back combo and the team of  creaking aged veterans (tongue in cheek, however this must be our eldest squad in the post SL era) could do okay this year. 

 

[elppaxr2i]

Locky looked past it yesterday, cant believe he got given the 10 shirt and will probably be our starting prop, hoping things improve but think its a season too far for him, this is the time of the year when the forwards are going to make more of an impression than the backs and he was the  forward out there who made the least of an impression for me yesterday

Edited January 17 by elppaxr2i

[The Phantom Horseman]

53 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

I'm not sure about no injuries. Holmesy came back on after  half time with his hamstring heavily strapped he was limping badly at the end of the match.

 

I was going to mention that myself in my earlier post (Holmes actually came off a few minutes before the end) but then I watched McDermott's post-game interview where he was specifically asked if there were any injuries with next week's game in mind and he replied with what seemed a fairly dismissive "no". So hopefully it was just a dead leg or something similar.

[The Phantom Horseman]

48 minutes ago, elppaxr2i said:

Locky looked past it yesterday, cant believe he got given the 10 shirt and will probably be our starting prop, hoping things improve but think its a season too far for him, this is the time of the year when the forwards are going to make more of an impression than the backs and he was the  forward out there who made the least of an impression for me yesterday

I thought that a few times last season but then there were other games when he played really well and indeed when we struggled when he and Kopczak went off, and I don't know that I'd be writing him off based on the first pre-season game. One surprising feature last season was how many times he created a try or a clean break for another forward with a short passe, that was a relatively new string to his bow.

I do think we might see a fair bit less of him this year though, especially if Ferres is being switched to the middle, or indeed if there is further recruitment in his position.

[haskey]

Still confused . looked on the RFL disciplinary website no mention at all of 8 marches or when the appeal is . absolute garbage. only shows 4 matches last year all No charge.