The round-four fixture has so far survived the wintry blast and will be shown by Sky Sports following the postponement of Wakefield Trinity’s home game against Huddersfield Giants.
With Leeds Rhinos’ home game against Catalans Dragons and St Helens’ clash with Salford Red Devils also falling victim to the weather and Wigan Warriors’ fixture with Widnes Vikings dependent on a pitch inspection, all eyes will be on east Yorkshire.
Warrington are on a roll after picking up back-to-back wins over Widnes and Wigan while Hull coach Lee Radford is hoping for a response from his side to their defeat at Castleford Tigers.
“We need to be better with our skill set this week because you can’t afford to face eight defensive sets back to back, like we did against Castleford,” Radford said,
“Warrington have recruited exceptionally well and probably have one of the best squads in the comp. If we’re not bang at it, then there’s a risk we’ll lose and that’s how rugby league is.”
Dom with pitch inspection pic.twitter.com/79Fwfi6jYY
— Luke Douglas (@lukedougie) March 1, 2018
The Wolves have a chance to draw level with unbeaten leaders St Helens and Wakefield after overcoming a sluggish start to life under new coach Steve Price:.
“We need to build on our last couple of weeks,” Price said. “A solid defensive backbone will be needed on Friday.
“At their home ground it’s going to be a tough game. They have a lot of good individual players.”
Price promotes Dec Patton from the bench after losing stand-off Kevin Brown with a head injury while second rower Joe Philbin has recovered from a head knock to take the place of Ben Currie, who injured his knee in the win over Wigan.
Hull are boosted by the return of England prop Scott Taylor, who has recovered from appendicitis, and second rower Sika Manu, who stayed behind when the squad returned from Australia to visit cyclone-hit Tonga.
Due to postponements around the league, tomorrow's clash with @wolvesrl (kick-off 7.45pm) will now be televised on Sky Sports pic.twitter.com/s1r5Ly9Rgk
— Hull FC (@hullfcofficial) March 1, 2018
But they are without stand-off Albert Kelly, who suffered a head knock at Castleford, and in-form prop Mickey Paea, who is facing a month on the sidelines with a broken hand.
“We’re copping a few injuries early on in the season, so hopefully we can get them out of the way for the rest of the season nice and quick,” Radford said.
“Scott has had a really disrupted pre-season and I really think it will be three or four weeks before we see him back to his best again.
“He obviously had the World Cup and only played one game. He came back into camp with us pretty late, had a staggered pre-season, started the season, then had a two-week break.
“It’s been all over the place for him lately, so I expect it will take a couple of games for him to get back to his best.”
