Match thread: Championship Rd5. Featherstone Rovers v Halifax. Sunday 6th March 2022.

[marklaspalmas]

Back to the league then.

It's always odd playing the same team in successive weeks, and the way the Cup draw has fallen, we have a double dose of Halifax followed by a double dose of Batley. Ho hum. Games have to be won though.

So, with Ryley Jacks now here, we have all 28 players on board.

Koppy (knee) JSL (shoulder) Hardo, Gill & Doyle (hammy's) are all weeks away.

That leaves 23. Not seen the Fax game yet, but Leilua did the 80, which is a good sign. Perhaps Jacks or Mathiou might get a call this weekend. Either way, we have options, with Trout, McConnell and Holmes all keeping fit in Leeds A. Personally, I'd make a couple of changes, not for any other reason than to keep things fresh. I'd bring back Trout and maybe McConell and rotate the pack a bit.

In the halves, we could even see for example Wildie and Smith, Jones at hooker and Jacks off the bench with Chizz rested? There really are a LOT of options at 6,7 and 9 for us.

Important to keep winning, five tries every match, and build some momentum.

[mightyship]

9 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

n the halves, we could even see for example Wildie and Smith, Jones at hooker and Jacks off the bench with Chizz rested? There really are a LOT of options at 6,7 and 9 for us.

You may be right on Chizzy as he went off in the 2nd half at the Shay-  not sure if he was injured or whether it was tactical 

[haskey]

Maybe Big Mac took him off as he was not firing on all cylinders. These heavy grounds dont suit Chizzy

[marklaspalmas]

19 minutes ago, mightyship said:

You may be right on Chizzy as he went off in the 2nd half at the Shay-  not sure if he was injured or whether it was tactical 

Yes. This illustrates the riches we have.

With Chizz a new dad off the field and slipping in the mud on the field we can afford to wrap him in cotton wool for drier wickets if need be.

Jacks will be ready to go soon. Wildie is proving tough, versatile and capable of big minutes. Smith is settling in nicely  Holmes needs time to recover form and confidence but has the talent.

[mightyship]

1 hour ago, haskey said:

Maybe Big Mac took him off as he was not firing on all cylinders. These heavy grounds dont suit Chizzy

 

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

Yes. This illustrates the riches we have.

With Chizz a new dad off the field and slipping in the mud on the field we can afford to wrap him in cotton wool for drier wickets if need be.

Jacks will be ready to go soon. Wildie is proving tough, versatile and capable of big minutes. Smith is settling in nicely  Holmes needs time to recover form and confidence but has the talent.

I think you’re both right - we’re blessed at half back this year. Thought I’m also an admirer of Mellor at Leigh - he looked very good against Widnes the other night

[sentoffagain2]

1 minute ago, mightyship said:

 

I think you’re both right - we’re blessed at half back this year. Thought I’m also an admirer of Mellor at Leigh - he looked very good against Widnes the other night

   You are right about Mellor everything went through him last night and he kept up the pace for 80 min.I have been impressed by his leadership on the field in the games i have seen on TV this season.I think we need to try to put him under pressure when we play them again.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mightyship said:

You may be right on Chizzy as he went off in the 2nd half at the Shay-  not sure if he was injured or whether it was tactical 

BM never mentioned it in post match 

2 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

   You are right about Mellor everything went through him last night and he kept up the pace for 80 min.I have been impressed by his leadership on the field in the games i have seen on TV this season.I think we need to try to put him under pressure when we play them again.

To be fair S don't think we gave him  got a look in  last time we played

[marklaspalmas]

I'm a huge Chisholm fan and managing him correctly will be one of the keys to our success in 2022.

Jacks is an unknown quantity but his pedigree suggests he could be vital too.

Tbh Webster's failing last year was his inability to get his hookers and halfbacks clicking at the business end. Brown and Jones were fixed, but right up to the last game we weren't sure who was directing traffic with Chizz, Holmes and Parata in and out of the team. I hope Big Mac works it all out in a timely fashion in 2022.

I think it's worth saying, every halfback alive can do his stuff if his forwards are on top, and his outside backs pose a threat. Fev are well set in those respects.

[sentoffagain2]

10 hours ago, POR said:

BM never mentioned it in post match 

To be fair S don't think we gave him  got a look in  last time we played

   True i didn.t see him stand out which is good.I wouldn't swap our halves for Leighs as i don't rate Richardson very highly.Glad we didn't draw Leigh in the cup as we play them in the Summer Bash and maybe in the play offs.

[Monkeymagic22]

Ryley Jacks has performed this credit in the NRL for probably the best team over the past view years. I'd say he'd be a certainty to start every week, once he's up to speed.

[The Phantom Horseman]

13 hours ago, mightyship said:

You may be right on Chizzy as he went off in the 2nd half at the Shay-  not sure if he was injured or whether it was tactical 

Chissy's kick was caught in his own in-goal by Saltonstall, from the ensuing 20m tap Chissy jammed in to help Luke Cooper and a space was left for Aston to take the ball to within 15m of our line on the zero tackle. We actually held them out on the next five tackles but they scored on the 6th from a kick and Dane was replaced by Wildie immediately after the conversion (at the same time Lockwood came on for Cuthbertson).

It reminded me a bit of when Webster subbed Chissy in the Cup game against Hull last year after some poor tackling from him, though in fairness to Chissy his kick was only a yard too deep and he might have thought Cooper wasn't going to be able to tackle Saltonstall. He did have one of his quieter games though.

So it will be interesting to see what the selection is in our halves on Sunday. With Jacks advertised as being present at a business event on Friday and reportedly fully fit he'll come into contention soon, certainly none of our halves can rest on their laurels.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Chissy's kick was caught in his own in-goal by Saltonstall, from the ensuing 20m tap Chissy jammed in to help Luke Cooper and a space was left for Aston to take the ball to within 15m of our line on the zero tackle. We actually held them out on the next five tackles but they scored on the 6th from a kick and Dane was replaced by Wildie immediately after the conversion (at the same time Lockwood came on for Cuthbertson).

 

True PH but if you watch it back it should have/.could have been a penalty to FEV Luke going to catch ball and warmsley leads with his knee and jumps into lukes back knocking him to the floor 

Put it another way WHAT IF warmsley had been going to catch the ball and was taken out by a defender

The best bit PH their twitter page has photo shopped warmley catching the ball above luke ENJOY

 

 

 

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[Tubby]

25 minutes ago, POR said:

True PH but if you watch it back it should have/.could have been a penalty to FEV Luke going to catch ball and warmsley leads with his knee and jumps into lukes back knocking him to the floor 

Put it another way WHAT IF warmsley had been going to catch the ball and was taken out by a defender

The best bit PH their twitter page has photo shopped warmley catching the ball above luke ENJOY

 

 

 

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That just looks like a great bit of play by Walmsley to me.

[lingaro]

Looks like the laws of gravity don't apply to me. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, Tubby said:

That just looks like a great bit of play by Walmsley to me.

T yes Warmsley  looks great catching the ball 6ft in the air but that's not what happened sunday it's a made up picture 

[Tubby]

I've just been back and watched the try and I thought you were right.  but I think it's just about this point, but taken from behind the posts?

 

[Rockingchair]

14 minutes ago, POR said:

T yes Warmsley  looks great catching the ball 6ft in the air but that's not what happened sunday it's a made up picture 

It’s not made up it’s a freelance photographer called Simon hall .

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, POR said:

The best bit PH their twitter page has photo shopped warmley catching the ball above luke ENJOY

 

 

 

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No idea why you think it was photo shopped, it was a terrific jump for the ball and the photo clearly matches the video.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

No idea why you think it was photo shopped, it was a terrific jump for the ball and the photo clearly matches the video.

I just though watching rovers TV they were closer and his legs lower when he caught the ball not taking away it was a a terrific jump and a well taken try 

[Monkeymagic22]

Does this really matter, given we won the match. More importantly how do we see the team lining up this weekend?.

[The Phantom Horseman]

I'm hoping our lads will be stinging a bit from a second half which wasn't really up to the standards they are trying to set, though Fax did play very well in that second half and caused us a bit of trouble.

I did think that when we were near their line we looked more likely to score than they did near ours, so I'm still fairly positive about the goal line defence and the systems McDermott has installed, but a convincing performance this weekend would be nice.

From the game at the Shay, I thought Cuthbertson made an impact when carrying the ball, much more so than previously this season, we could really do with him continuing with this as there is a bit of a drop-off from our starting middles I feel. Bussey once again played the full 80 minutes, he really is such an important player for us at the moment because his performance doesn't really drop off much when he plays big minutes.

I thought Leilua had plenty of good moments considering he's only played 20 minutes since the end of last season. A couple of lovely offloads and he certainly attracted plenty of attention. It was funny listening to the Fax fans singing "what a waste of money" after he had been stopped a couple of yards short by about 5 Fax players, it was no coincidence that Briscoe found himself unmarked on two or three occasions as the defence keyed in on Joey.

Chisholm, Hall and Johnny D who are three of our big-play guys all had relatively quiet games by their standards on Sunday, which of course will happen some weeks. Interesting to see if Chisholm is selected after being taken off, the shadow of Ryley Jacks will be looming for our other half backs now he has arrived, maybe Sunday will be too soon for him but am sure we'll be seeing him before long.

It's been good to see Gaz Gale back in the groove and making good metres in recent weeks. His place is probably still under threat when Josh is fit again (with Hall potentially moving to the wing) but he's played very well after a ropey start to the season.

Although we gave away a few more penalties than ideal on Sunday I still think our discipline this year has been pretty impressive. We are one of the few teams that seem to have avoided penalties for late hits, and I can't even remember any of our guys being referred to the discplinary from this season's games.

Leigh are going very well now so we need to keep our standards high, I'm hopeful we'll put in an 80-minute performance on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

[marklaspalmas]

19 of the 21 man squad is on the RFL's website.

Wildie to be added, and I'm not sure who else.

Jacks, Mathiou, but also Callum Field not named so far......

[bigbaldnmad]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Jacks

 

[gazza77]

19 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

19 of the 21 man squad is on the RFL's website.

Wildie to be added, and I'm not sure who else.

Jacks, Mathiou, but also Callum Field not named so far......

I think we can probably guess who the 21st name will be. 

 

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

Yep...when Leilua was first named he didn't appear in the 19 on the RFL website either. The missing two names will be Wildie and Jacks I'm sure.

Callum Field was taken off about 2 minutes after he was treated for an arm/shoulder knock in the game at The Shay so might not be over that.