Match thread: Championship Rd 7. Featherstone Rovers v Sheffield. Sunday 3rd April 2022.

[marklaspalmas]

Back to the Championship after the jolly in Perpignan.

All 17 players seemed to come through ok.

Squad men Chisholm, Trout, Jones and Hellewell will all presumably be looking for a game.

Holmes & McConnell still out on loan, so the 21 man squad will be the same.

Unless.......

I wonder if Big Mac wants to throw Kheirallah straight in there? I wouldn't.

 

[Robin Evans]

Mathiou might be available hopefully 

[jamescolin]

Funnily enough although Sheffield have won three games but lost two they have apart from Leigh the best points difference in the Championship. They also have the best defence.  I hope we are on top form for this match. UTR

[Cardypaul]

Any news on the fitness of Koppy and Jesse? 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Cardypaul said:

Any news on the fitness of Koppy and Jesse? 

When doing commentary on the 7th kopps said 3 weeks 

[Cardypaul]

1 hour ago, POR said:

When doing commentary on the 7th kopps said 3 weeks 

So that is possibly this week then 

[marklaspalmas]

2 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

Mathiou might be available hopefully 

Really?

[Steve Slater]

Will Holmes be allowed to play for Sheffield?

[haskey]

How can Holmes play for Sheffield on Sunday. when he is not only in the Fev squad he is also employed by us in other capacities?

[gittinsfan]

26 minutes ago, haskey said:

How can Holmes play for Sheffield on Sunday. when he is not only in the Fev squad he is also employed by us in other capacities?

I must admit that I don't understand fully the rules on DR and loans.Having said that, nothing would surprise me.

[Fevrob]

1 hour ago, gittinsfan said:

I must admit that I don't understand fully the rules on DR and loans.Having said that, nothing would surprise me.

Wasn’t it a 2 week loan? 

[elppaxr2i]

Unless its renewed by Thurs his two week loan expires on thursday

Be a stupid move to renew it, renew it on Monday at 8am

[The Phantom Horseman]

Back in the league we face a familiar situation, can we come close to the same level of intensity we showed against Catalans, and what sort of opposition are we going to be facing?

Sheffield have scored 188 points in their last four games against non-SL opposition and recorded crushing wins in Cumbria on their last two Championship games. They might have hit a couple of inconsistent teams on a bad day, but they are certainly capable of scoring points and look much better this year than they did last year.

Points to watch for me...

-an email from the club this morning suggests we are "likely to see the debut" of Kheirallah and also the possible return of Craig Kopczak. It also confirms Tom Holmes is ineligible to play for Sheffield this weekend.  I was wondering if we might rest one of our older middles this week, but we do have a blank weekend next week.

-where does Junior Moors play (assuming he isn't rested)? He has been a real handful playing on the edge this season but was moved to the middle at Catalans and again went very well. With Kopczak potentially back, we are starting to look stronger in the middle. But Mac might be keen to keep on finding a place for Harcastle, which might mean at back row. Certainly, having Koppy, Locky, Bussey, Moors, Cuthbo and Coops as the 6 middles in our 17 looks pretty good to me.

- our general discipline has been very good this year, but we need to tidy up the forward passes and incorrect play-the-balls, we turned the ball over 5 or 6 times through those two types of mistake at Catalans.

We haven't had a really convincing 80-minute Championship performance since the Leigh game, would be good to see us impose ourselves on a Sheffield team who have been going ok.

 

[philcow]

Not expecting anything else but a big win

[The Phantom Horseman]

A good and detailed injury/rehab update from S & C coach Lee Paterson on RoversTV today, couple of injury blows from the Catalans game.

[haskey]

I thought that McD said last week that there was no injury problems from the Catalan game. Whose hurt PH.????

[bigbaldnmad]

Pickergill has a knee ligament injury, not as bad as Koppy's

Ferres - Badly broken thumb that may need pinning

Gale - depends on RFL head injury protocol.

[haskey]

Thanks BBM

[Cardypaul]

Makes sense why we have moved for a full back now then

[Fevrover]

42 minutes ago, Cardypaul said:

Makes sense why we have moved for a full back now then

It made sense before ,we need a decent squad to cover injuries and suspensions, they are inevitable.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Gale - depends on RFL head injury protocol.

Players are banned for at least 11 days and are not be permitted to play again until they have gone through the  Graduated Return To Play but this  only for  players who fail concussion tests during matches or training on Saturday GG passed all the concussion protocols and came back on so should be OK

[bigbaldnmad]

Lee Paterson, in his update on Rovers TV, suggests that is subject to clearing all reviews by RFL.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Lee Paterson, in his update on Rovers TV, suggests that is subject to clearing all reviews by RFL.

That's true B but RFL review every thing that happens during the game so this is nothing different they will just be checking if  the appropriate return to play protocols were  followed before GG went back on

[Michael Bates]

Guess we'd line up something like

 

1. Kheirallah

2. Briscoe

3. Leilua

4. Hardcastle

5. Hall

 

With the missing players?

[The Phantom Horseman]

19 named on RFL website
https://www.rugby-league.com/match-centre/match-preview/2217708

Ferres, Pickersgill and Gale all out as forewarned. Kheirallah's inclusion will catch the headlines, but the return of Craig Kopczak to the squad is massive news too. Jacob Doyle also in the reckoning after a long absence.

Still no sign of Matthieu, and Trout and Wildie are presumably once again the two we can add to the end of that list to make up the 21.