Kingstone Press Championship Preview: Featherstone Rovers v Hunslet Hawks

This game is being played at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium, home of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, due to on-going pitch maintenance at the Big Fellas Stadium.

Andy Hay, the Featherstone Rovers coach, said: “It’s not ideal, it’s almost an away game I suppose but we’ve played at Wakefield in a trial game and a lot of players have played there before so it’s not a massive disruption. It’s just another field and a big field as well which suits us. 

“We’re going into the game pretty strong. We’ll have a final check this week but we’re almost picking from a full squad so it’s going to be a tough selection.”

Hunslet Hawks coach Barry Eaton says the switch to a Monday evening kick-off will be tough on his players, who all have full time jobs “It’s a little bit of a hindrance,” he says, “but I’m hoping that we won’t allow it to be an issue for us.

“We have a good nucleus of new players to go with those we retained from last year. They’ve bedded in really well. I’ve got a tough selection headache picking a side for Monday.”

Only Marcus Elliott, Luke Hardbottle and Matthew Tebb are unavailable through injury.