In just under a fortnight rugby league will once again head to Wembley for the near annual pilgrimage to the Challenge Cup Final with this year providing a unique match up in Leigh Leopards facing Hull KR, following each side’s historic semi-final win over St Helens and Wigan Warriors respectively.
Both teams play this week with KR travelling to face Wigan for a fourth time this season whilst Leigh head to Headingley to face Rohan Smith’s Leeds.
Evidently neither side want to pick up injuries, particularly given they’re still very much in the playoff hunt for Super League, and so rotation was expected and has now been confirmed by Rovers boss Willie Peters.
Addressing the media Peters confirmed that the Robins have recruited three short term loan signings in the form of Catalans Dragons Cesar Rouge, Wakefield Trinity’s Isaac Shaw and Warrington Wolves’ Luke Thomas.
“We’re thankful to all three clubs for the opportunity to bring in these players this week,” Peters explained.
“The two front-rowers, Isaac (Shaw) and Luke (Thomas) are certainly effort-based players. They compete hard and that’s the players we’re looking for this week.
“César (Rougé) is coming over from Catalans and he can play halfback and hooker. He’s a competitive player with Super League experience. All three players are handy pick-ups ahead of this weekend as we’ve got players with knocks that would be a risk to play. We know Issac, Luke and César will compete hard for us on Friday.”
However as well as the three recruits it was also confirmed that there will be three academy players handed their debuts at the DW on Friday night with Leo Tennison, Lennie Ellie and Louix Gorman all set to feature.
“Yeah we’ve actually got three academy players who will make their debut this week. So one is Leo Tennison, who’s been through part of our system.
“Louix Gorman is another one and Lennie Ellis. So we’re certainly giving opportunity to players within. We’re certainly not going to give an opportunity to another five or six players if they’re not ready.
“Louix Gorman is a player that, you know, we’ve got high hopes for. He was actually part of the Ireland team, just being in the squad for a week or so at the past World Cup. He’s played for Yorkshire, he’s scored a try at the end there.
“The other one is Lennie Ellis. Lennie is a player, similar values to Louix, a good person, wants to do well in his career, and now we’re giving him the opportunity.
“He’s played at halfback before, but we’ve moved him to hooker, so it’s a new role to him, but what I’ve liked is how he’s embraced that role and pretty much grabbed the opportunity and did well this week.
“The last one, Leo Tennison, is a player that probably had a slow start to the season, getting used to the full-time environment, but got himself in good condition.
“He played against FC a couple of weeks back when we got beaten in reserve grade, but what I saw was a player, a front-rower that had aggression about him and it just showed to me what the club meant to him, the way, the passion that he played in.”
Peters explained his reasoning for the debut calls: “I’m a coach that certainly wants to promote and develop within, but you need to earn that as well and these players have certainly earned that.
“It was probably the most I’ve been excited for is being able to give three players a debut jersey, announcing it today in team meeting. It’s a special time for those players, special time for their families.
“We can’t expect too much of them this week. All we expect is effort and hard. Technically, will they get everything right? Probably not. But that’s not what they’re there to do.
“They’re there to wear the jersey with some pride, which they have, coming through the Academy ranks and the Reserve grade. And I know they’ll do the club proud and they’ll do themselves proud and I know they’ll do their family proud.”
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