Widnes Vikings v Warrington Warriors: First Utility Super League preview
Last Updated: 02/04/15 10:34pm
Widnes captain Kevin Brown is expected to make his return from injury in Thursday's First Utility Super League clash with neighbours Warrington at the Select Security Stadium.
Brown has missed the Vikings’ last three matches with a hamstring injury but is included in Denis Betts’ 19-man squad as they attempt to bounce back from last week’s heavy defeat at Salford.
Back-rowers Danny Galea and Danny Tickle and hooker Lloyd White could also return, but winger Paddy Flynn and second-rower Chris Clarkson are out after picking up injuries against the Red Devils.
Warrington have forwards Ben Harrison and Anthony England back in action but the game comes too soon for scrum-half Richie Myler, who is set to make his comeback on Easter Monday.
Wolves coach Tony Smith is calling a truce in his battle against the Easter programme as he seeks to prevent his side conceding a third successive defeat for the first time for six years.
Smith has led the calls for the scrapping of the traditional double-header, arguing that the extra workload on players dilutes the competition, but is looking forward to the chance to pick up some much-needed points after losing back-to-back fixtures against St Helens and Huddersfield.
"I think the time will come when we scrap the double-header," Smith said. "I think there's some really sensible people about that are starting to understand the overall importance of performance rather than the number of games.
"But I'm not going to complain about it this year. We're looking forward to the Easter period and we're rolling our sleeves up because our form hasn't been great the last couple of weeks so it's a chance for us to get back on track. It's a change of mentality for us this year.
"After Huddersfield we had a feeling that we wanted to play the next day so it's good that a couple of games have snuck up on us pretty quickly."
Widnes Vikings: Kevin Brown, Chris Dean, Gil Dudson, Danny Galea, Alex Gerrard, Rhys Hanbury, Aaron Heremaia, Declan Hulme, Ben Kavanagh, Macgraff Leuluai, Manase Manuokafoa, Stefan Marsh, Joe Mellor, Eamon O’Carroll, Jack Owens, Cameron Phelps, Danny Tickle, Lloyd White, Matt Whitley.
Warrington Wolves: Roy Asotasi, Ryan Atkins, Chris Bridge, Daryl Clark, Ben Currie, Anthony England, Ben Harrison, Micky Higham, Chris Hill, George King, James Laithwaite, Joel Monaghan, Gareth O’Brien, Kevin Penny, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Matthew Russell, Ashton Sims, Ben Westwood.