Featherstone Rovers v Leeds Rhinos – Familiar faces make quick return ‘home’
LEEDS RHINOS youngsters Jack Broadbent, Jarrod O’Connor, Tyler Dupree and Sam Walters will line up against Featherstone Rovers tomorrow, after playing for them four days ago.
The quartet all featured on dual-registration in Rovers’ 16-14 defeat at Hull KR, but have been recalled by Leeds for the partner clubs’ annual pre-season hit-out.
Featherstone coach James Webster works on a part-time basis as an assistant coach at Leeds and revealed: “When we finished at Hull KR last week I said to a couple of the boys in the changing rooms ‘see you next week – in a different shirt and a different team’.”
It is Rovers’ final game before their Betfred Championship campaign begins.
“It is going to be a great test for us,” Webster predicted. “Leeds are going to put a decent side out and we are going to have to go as strong as we’ve got because that’s all we’ve got.
“It is nine days before our first game, at Batley, and it’s a really good opportunity to get people like Brett Ferres and Dale Ferguson some game time.”
Rovers drew their opening pre-season match against York City Knights, recorded a 102-14 win at Valencia – when Webster took some players off without replacing them in order to make it more of a contest – and were pipped 16-14 at Hull KR.
They are still missing some players, but Webster reckons tomorrow evening is the time to start fine-tuning ahead of the Championship kick-off.
“We have had a pretty disjointed pre-season, but that has been and gone now,” he said.
“We’ve got one last hit-out so it’s really important we get some guys some minutes.
“Obviously we want to get through injury-free, but we see this as a really vital tune-up for us.”
Featherstone Rovers: from Albert, Beckett, Blackmore, Bussey, Carey, Chisholm, Ferguson, Ferres, French, Gale, Craig Hall, Hardcastle, Harrison, Jouffret, Lockwood, Ottewell, Parata, Richardson, Susino, Sweeting, Worthington, B Wright. N Wright.
Leeds Rhinos: Whitton, Broadbent, Evans, Corey Hall, L Briscoe, Spence, McLelland, Dupree, Whiteley, Holroyd, O’Connor, Walters, Mustapha. Subs: O Burton, McConnell, Mayhew, Gibbons, Field
Referee: Jack Smith (Warrington).
Kick-off: Tomorrow, 7.30pm.