SCOTT Naylor has confirmed that apart from his four suspended players — Danny Bridge, Luke Hooley, Ben Davies and Luke Nelmes — every other member of his squad will be available for selection for Sunday’s Betfred League 1 semi-final play-off clash at Bradford Bulls.
He will, therefore, name his early 19-man squad from those who played in the 46-18 win at London Skolars, minus Hooley, Davies and Nelmes plus Dave Eccleston, Steven Nield, Adam Jones, Danny Rasool, Liam Bent, Zack McComb and Ben West.
As you would expect, main topic of chat and banter at last night’s (Thurs) training session was Danny Langtree’s elevation to the highest level with Hull FC on a two-year deal, starting next season.
His pending departure will merely add to the squad’s big-match motivation and its collective determination to be as good as it can possibly be.
Said Scott:
“When we played Bulls at home in the league I didn’t think there was a lot between us apart from that 15-minute spell before half-time when we had that blip that was to cost us heavily.
“We can take a lot of confidence from the fact that, first with 12 men and then down to 10, we kept them scoreless in the second half.
“The thing about Bradford is that they have a very large squad so they are inevitably very strong off the bench.
“They rested eight men the week before they played us at the Vestacare and they did the same thing again last Sunday.
“They’ll be starting strong and fresh, while we’ll be starting without three suspended players who were given cards the last time we played Bradford a week or two ago.
“That’s a setback, but its not something we are not used to handling. We’ve been doing it all season.
“Everybody expects things to go according to Bradford’s plan, but I know who will be the more nervous if we reach the hour mark and there’s not much between the teams.
“It will be interesting to see what happens if things don’t go according to plan.
“We just need the referee to be strong and to give us a fair crack of the whip.”
