Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves have confirmed their line-ups for this evening’s Super League clash.
In what is a game that celebrates the competition’s 30th birthday, the two sides will meet at Headingley in a game that Warrington will see as must-win if they want to cement themselves as title challenges this year.
Leeds will want a response after such a poor showing away at Hull FC last week, and as a result of the performance, Arthur has pulled no punches with his selections. He has made a key change to his backline with Harry Newman being left out of the side.
Wire, after a 72-6 thumping of Castleford Tigers last week, have kept with the same 17 as they look to continue their unbeaten start to the competition.
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Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves line-ups confirmed
Both sides delivered some early team news after three players from each 21-man squad featured in the reserves competition on Friday evening.
For Leeds, Jeremiah Matautia, Ethan O’Neill and Presley Cassell all lined up for Chev Walker’s side, meaning that, of the remaining 18, only Ryan Hall remains in the side who didn’t feature last week.
He is back in the 17 this week, and returns in place of Newman, who has seemingly been dropped on form, not injury, however that will be clarified by Arthur post-match.
Hall returns to the wing with Jack Bird coming into Newman’s place at centre. Chris Hankinson drops to the bench.
For Warrington, Ewan Irwin features in arguably the biggest game of his career so far, as Sam Burgess continues to prefer him over the veteran Marc Sneyd.
Sneyd featured for Wire’s reserves against Leeds alongside Luke Thomas and Max Wood, so we knew those three wouldn’t feature this weekend.
Josh Thewlis continues at full-back, whilst Matty Ashton will be hoping to continue his try-scoring form after a hat-trick on return from injury last weekend.
Leeds Rhinos: Lachie Miller, Maika Sivo, Jack Bird, Ash Handley, Ryan Hall, Brodie Croft, Jake Connor, Tom Holroyd, Danny Levi, Keenan Palasia, Kallum Watkins, James McDonnell, Cameron Smith
Bench: Jarrod O’Connor, Mikolaj Oledzki, Cooper Jenkins, Chris Hankinson
Warrington Wolves: Josh Thewlis, Matty Ashton, Toby King, Albert Hopoate, Josh Smith, George Williams, Ewan Irwin, Luke Yates, Danny Walker, Liam Byrne, Sam Stone, Kelepi Tanginoa, Ben Currie
Bench: James Harrison, Jordan Crowther, Joe Philbin, Lachlan Webster
