NRC Preview: Halifax v Oldham

Sunday 13th February – 3pm

Halifax RLFC coach Matt Calland has a few selection headaches after tempting Graham Holroyd out of retirement with a player-coach role at The Shay.

Holroyd, 34, rejoined Halifax on Tuesday, while Makali Aizue (knee), Michael Ostick (knee) and Neil Cherryholme (groin) will be assessed later in the week.

Oldham Roughyeds coach Tony Benson could name an unchanged side from the team that beat Hunslet last week.

Benson said: “That win was a good sign, and there’d been good signs all through pre-season. We went up another level on Sunday.

“We’re not going to get more of a physical match than that. We had to be quite smart and technical and we stuck to that well.”

Benson has identified a particular area to work on ahead of Sunday’s trip to The Shay.

He said: “We’ve got a pretty good defence as it is, but we’ve a few areas we can fine tune. A couple of tries Hunslet’s tries last week were scored from kicks, so need to be better at defending those, because Halifax are the kind of team where if you can contain them, then you’ve got a good chance.”