Agreed. Support through thick and thin. Plus, 2026 is very much a consolidation year given how late they started. I'm not sure what some people expected?! 

A battle of reserves should be close. But I think the pirates have too much fire power in the 1/3/5 positions. And Lawson and Zach in H13/15 will be too strong for Klindt and Co to live with. Lawson might be unbeatable again

That'll be the final.....

Replacing Bowes for Gilkes wouldn’t make sense as it would be too big of drop in team building points. Gilkes is unlucky and hopefully he gets a chance as a pirate soon.    As for Bowes he’s on borrowed time now, as soon as his avg gets close to officially being less 5.0 then I think Poole should look abroad for a replacement. Hopefully he turns his fortunes around 

So fixtures wise, Edinburgh vs Poole & Redcar vs Berwick works best. Maybe a behind closed doors "draw" could sort this. When fans moan about lack of transparency, BSPL can say "you didn't like our last public draw"

I thought so to, and also thought it would be a great idea... World No2, pretty much guaranteed to hit you 12 and over at home, so would "protect" races, thus keeping the score close at worst, and do it from the back if needed... A "new hero", for the kids in particular, to latch onto... I thought, given it was a "collective", who made it clear how important it was to launch a sixth team, that they would have sorted them out a very competitive team.. They seem to have settled on two number 3's, three second strings, and two reserves...