March to name unchanged side

Hunslet Hawks coach Paul March is set to name the same 17-man squad that faced Barrow as he battles to keep his side in the Co-operative Championship.

Hawks are level on 19 points with York, just a point above recently relegated Dewsbury, putting a huge amount of pressure on this weekend’s fixtures.

March said: “All the lads had a full week off after the Barrow game so they could get away from rugby league.

“This week they trained on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Everybody knows how important it is.

“There’s no getting away from the pressure of it, but hopefully we can go out there, give a good account of ourselves and secure our survival.”

On Halifax, he added: “They’re a difficult team to face, but they’ve not playing well at the minute. They probably won’t play as bad again as they did against York, but we gave a good account of ourselves at the Shay earlier in the year and we’ll be approaching this game with confidence.”

Jim Gannon, Sam Barlow and Sean Penkywicz are all set to return for Halifax. Caretaker coach Damian Ball said: “We lacked a bit of punch against York, and they should help rectify that.”