Grix back as Fax prepare for key test against Broncos

Grix, who missed last Friday’s win over Barrow with concussion, is likely to return in his favoured loose forward role, where he played a major role in the league win over another full time side, Leigh, three weeks ago.

Coach Richard Marshall said he was otherwise likely to field a similar team to the one that comfortably eclipsed the Raiders before seeing the Easter Monday game at Dewsbury fall victim to the weather, although he has also added dual-registration forward James Green from Castleford to his matchday squad.

“Simon would have played on Monday if the game had been on, so he’ll come back in, probably at loose forward,” said Marshall.

“That combination with Ben Johnston and Scott Murrell worked well for us against Leigh so we’ll probably take another look at that.

“We obviously wanted to play Monday, but the benefit of the game being off is that the players have had some time to recover, so we’ll be fresh for this weekend.

“We had a few players carrying knocks; we rested Shane Grady, Ed Barber and Will Sharp at training on Tuesday, so we need to assess those three closer to kick off.

“I’ve spoken to Castleford and there’s a possibility we could use a player from there, but again we’ll only know later in the week.”

The Broncos had been in stellar early season form under new coach Danny Ward, but had a miserable Easter, losing their first game of the season against Toulouse on Good Friday and backing that up with a 31-18 loss at Leigh on Easter Monday.

“They’ve been outstanding and they’re certainly one of the competition’s more skilful teams, so it should be an exciting game,” said Marshall, who took advantage of Monday’s postponement to watch the Broncos in action at the LSV.

“That’s an area we need to match them this weekend; the quality of our execution.

“I’ve no doubt they’ll be in the top four at the end of the season.

“They’ve got some talent across the park, but Jarrod Sammut is an obvious danger at half back; he does everything they need him to and a bit more besides, so we’ll need to contain him.”