But he gets the offload and is a heroic defender.

I fully agree, and he bleeds blue and white and is a Halifax hero.
It's just against a tough and big Sheffield pack I would prefer to field our biggest forwards.

you need balance.

Big barn storming forwards can be exposed defensively

I know this but i don't feel any of our 'bigger' players are necessarily weak in the defence department.

Disagree with this - after 5 minutes Frank is usually knackered and struggles to get back onside. Other teams have sussed this and tend to run at him when he is out of position and usually draw the penalty for offside. Barrow in particular worked this last season

I would start with Maloney and Cherryholme, with Aizue, Tamghart and Wrench on the bench.

Sorry, great bloke as Frank is, with all the others fit I can't see Frank getting much game time this season

With respect its not just about making the yards, his workrate is top notch in defence. Cant think of any other player in his position who make the amount of tackles that he does.

Hey Mike! We almost agree

How " big " do you have to be to run through a gap yawn yawn yawn ??????????

Give it a rest will you........

Am I right in saying you've only added Aizue to the pack that was dominated at Widnes when we put 40 on you? Or had you forgotten that game?

You forgot that Stan the Man is likely to play in the Back Row as well

No.

Maloney as well.

and nash

....and have you not lost Fletcher and Morrison from last years squad?

Plus Neil Cherryholme is bigger and stronger this year and is the Widnes pack not weaker this season? And no not forgotten that game thats when we was playing bad last season.

Aizue
Nash
Gene
Maloney
Bannister (now fully fit)

Fail

My starting would be

8 - Aizue
10 - Maloney
11- Larder
12- Gene

bench
Cherryholme
Wrench
Tamghart

But talking to Neil on Facebook and he said he hasn't been selected!

Would like to see Bannister get a game and maybe have Stan at loose forward

And drop Bobby?

It's all about squad rotation!!!

And horses for courses - I think Stan will bring some much needed physicality to the game, along with Bannister and Larder to counteract the large Sheffield pack and the conditions.

There are difficult decisions to be made all over the park this season, and I don't envy Matt Calland one bit.

At the end of the day, there are a whole raft of permutations within the squad he has assembled now.

With all the mud it will really test the fitness of our forwards.

The pace we have in our squad should tell in the last 30

Not quite fail as Maloney did play against us in that game last year. To be honest I was just on about front rowers - but I should have said that instead of using the word "pack".

What I meant was: Is Aizue is the only member of your front row who is different to last years?

Anyways, its always fun to have a bit if banter, but I'm sure the rugby players will do the talking in a couple of weeks. I'm quietly confident we'll be ok in the middle of the park when we play Halifax - I'm always more worried about your exciting players like Black and Penkywicz etc.

The Widnes game will come too early for us, we need at lease 3 more games decent games under our belt before we fire on all cylinders

Fair enough then, thought Maloney came a little while afterwards. Said and Maka are a great pairing. Once they finally both got going today, it'd take 3 or 4 to stop 'em.