Same team again for Widnes bar Dwyer of course. Then ring the changes in the forwards for Hull away. Then play our strongest team against Wigan.

Do we know if Benny is likely to be back for Easter Monday ?

Easter schedule is a joke. Why on earth are we persisting with it?

Money.

Helps fit in all our fixtures.

Its daft that you had teams rearranging Round 11 games to the WCC weekend as they're involved in the challenge cup then, due to our wonky competition arrangements.

Its not just about the Easter fixtures, we have a squad that can handle them. As many have said play the strongest team against Widnes and the pies and rotate the forwards for the Hull FC game. That big (old) Hull pack will not be relishing the short turnaround from their Derby. If we get some fresh legs onto the paddock in Joe Philbin, Ben Evans et al then i am sure we will be fine.

Its the group of fixtures that follow this lot in April. All potential top of the table battles against Saints, Widnes (again), Huddersfield and Wigan (again). It all adds up to 7 games in a little over 5 weeks. Its bound to take some of the gas out of the tank. Lets see how we handle this lot and I am sure we will find out where we stack up against the rest.

The big old hull pack you mean
Scott Taylor 25
Chris Green 25
Liam Watts 25
Josh Bowden 24
Jordan Thompson 24

They will all be playing barring injury at Hull KR

I was thinking more of the ones you failed to mention, and probably your better forwards:

Gareth Ellis 35 (36 In May)
Mark Minichello 33
Frank Pritchard 32
Danny Washbrook 30
Will Feka get a run out 33

Leon Price may get a bit stiff too: 34

As a come back i will give you Kurt Gidley 34 in a few months...probably the fittest at the club.
Ben Westwood 34 (Wont play) and Ashton Simms 31

All the rest are mere boys

Strongest side v Widnes.

See who comes through that, then possibly some of the older heads rested Monday.

Smith said that he might be resting Gidley in their Coaches Corner interview, other than that I can't see us resting anyone except the props. If anyone has earned a rest it's Hill!

Pryce is injured, Mini, Washy and Ellis are super fit and this season get more breaks due to the quality in the forwards.

The only we we will win this game, is in the forwards, so if you rotate/rest your we have much more chance of winning, if we play well (And we haven't the last 3 games) then we can cause you problems, bit gamble to rotate too many players.

The problem though is that it's the third game that teams struggle with. Yes, we could put out a near full side again at Hull, but that would mean we would be knackered for the game at Wigan (away). No disrespect to Hull, but Wigan are closer rivals and likely to be up near the top of the table at the end of the year, and we need to beat them.
I am sure Smith will be a bit canny by reducing the time on the field for some players; Gidley and the props, for instance. But at some point he will have to bring in fresh bodies, and my suspicion would be that the 'bookend' games of Widnes and Wigan will predominantly draw our first choice players.

These modern players don't know they are born, rotation, having a breather, at Easter what's all that about, it's tradition? These lads mollycoddled beyond belief, I bet they don't even rub their own wintergreen in.

They are full time so haven't spent all week pulling or drawing wire (depending where you stand on that interesting debate), coal mining, trawlering, or plaiting chemical fog, prior to three nights of training, a gallon of bitter, 40 Woodbines or Embassy Regal/John Player's to clear your lungs and fulfil your Sponsorship obligations.

The game's gone soft.

Having said that looking forward to two belting matches.

Judging by the rate of ticket sales at the shop this morning I think we may be looking at our first full house on Friday. So,let's hope we see a cracker and may the best team win - as long a they're wearing P&B.

Looking at the ticket section of the website, there are only 93 seats left in the North, East and NE Quadrant, with none of them together. I presume that Widnes have the end block in the North stand - or certainly some of it, so not sure how their sales are going.

Not sure how sales in the West & South are going....?

That's fine, you can beat Widnes and Wigan, but let us win, you will still be top of the league, everyone is happy.



All teams are in the same boat, so even if your players are tired for the Wigan game, the Wigan team will be in the same position.

Unfortunately I don't have Mr Smith's ear. Actually if I am honest, I don't have Mrs Winslade's ear either. Anyway, good luck in the derby, we are all hoping that Hull give it 120% so that you are exhausted for Monday.

Its on the club website that Monday saw record one day sales of 1,500 (between both clubs) and seating is almost sold out. There is limited availability on the terraces.

Update on Facebook that there are only 150 tickets available for the South Stand - no more online purchases, just over the phone or at the shop.

It's great for the club and all that but I honestly hate the South stand being sold out.

You're like a sardine with no room to lift your arms up to clap, constantly having to move so people can go for a beer or to pee, once a year folk in there unable to handle their ale etc etc.

wow, thats pretty good, looks like ticket sales were good before this weekends results.

Be great if the West Stand is full too.

I know what you mean.

As bad as the crowds were last season, it was quite nice getting there 10 minutes before the game started go straight to the front of the queue for a beer and still find a decent spec! This season, we have struggled to get our 'normal' spot, despite getting there 20 mins before kick off....

Its what we need though, we have only really troubled the new capacity once or twice since we built it, would be good for a similar crowd vs Saints, but they may not travel well this year.

Agreed. I took it for granted last year! Talking about getting in the ground for 2pm just to get our regular spot.

I would say that since we have moved to the HJ ,Saints are the one team to regularly pack that away end no matter what form their team are in and I do include Wigan,Leeds and Widnes in this..

Because for many of them it's effectively a 'home' game and it seems that all too often they get to enjoy the sort of last minute pandemonium that we experienced at Salford the other week.