We enter a new season with a World Cup just days away - it’s going to be, I think one of the most exciting and unpredictable we have ever seen and the changes in the eligibility laws which have significant improved Tonga and Samoa is a big reason for that. My one hope is that the tournament isn’t defined by the lopsided draw which sees one of Australia, Wales and England expected to make a semi – final and the best we can hope for is one or both of Fiji and Samoa to knock one of these two teams off. When it comes to tournament competition though I think it is unlikely and my money is still on England to make it through, despite what we are seeing currently.

Another areas of unpredictability is the changes to the tackle laws – being honest, they haven’t impacted our pre-season games in any noticeable manner and having spoken to some individuals inside the referee’s department it seems the message has definitely been to look for reasons not to give penalties and if in doubt to play on (which is how it should be in all areas of law) but we definitely seen more players working to go lower and I would say therefore, the initial evidence is positive. However, we have picked up a concussion through two of our own players clashing heads in the same space, tackling low, and this is an area which is concerning, and I will be very interested to see how the evidence on this looks moving forward.

The HRFC team which you see taking the field today is quite different to the one which you saw last year with 7 players making debuts today- this has been intentional as we felt there was a need to refresh in certain positions, whilst also returning is Archie Heard – many of you would have been here in early February when he suffered a horrendous leg break but the work he has put in to get back on the field has been quite superb and after two pre-season run outs he has been passed fit to play. Archie has been appointed as our attack captain for this season, with Mitch Lamb – the most capped player on the field for us today our defence captain, and Jack Ramshaw the designated vice-captain, although be will be leading the team today with Alex Salt still recovering from standing on a ball during the warm up against Sheffield!

Our visitors today have also refreshed over the summer and so we also expect them to look very different to when we played them at the end of April, although they are developing a repetition for running tough warmups with one of their front rowers apparently receiving 20 stitches last week during their contact drills, so I am sure they will a real physical outfit for us to take on.

Pre-Season has been very up and down on the scoreboard but anyone who has been involved in the game for a period of time will tell you that pre-season scorelines don’t give much correlation to what happens when the league gets underway. However there are no excuses at 3pm, and we hope we can give you an entertaining afternoon to start the season.