Thompson's chance to shine

Sam Thompson gets an early chance to show that he can make the grade at Super League level when he makes his debut for Harlequins this afternoon.

The young forward made a handful of first-team appearances as a substitute for St Helens last season, before signing with Widnes in the Championship this year.

Now he has gone on loan to Quins, whose coach, Brian McDermott, believes he will be valuable back-up in his pack. ''Having seen Sam play, I know he will be able to do a job for us while a number of our forwards are out injured,'' he said.

McDermott has cautioned that today's opponents, the last-placed Celtic Crusaders, are not to be taken lightly, despite having just one win so far this season.

There will be one familiar face in the Welsh team's line-up, with the back-row forward Peter Lupton making his comeback from injury. He helps to compensate for the addition of Josh Hannay and Jason Chan to the Crusaders' casualty list.

Warrington will be without their injured scrum-half, Michael Monaghan, at Castleford. Lee Briers is likely to move into his role, with Chris Bridge slotting in at stand-off.

Castleford add James Ford and Dean Widders to the 17 that lost narrowly to Huddersfield in the Challenge Cup last weekend.

Leeds have taken a near full-strength squad to Perpignan for the match against the Catalan Dragons – and will leave three of their players behind afterwards.

Jamie Peacock, Danny McGuire and Ryan Hall, are all in England's squad to play in Paris next Saturday and will remain in France to link up with the rest of the party.

The Catalans will be without their accomplished full-back Clint Greenshields with an elbow injury. Their coach, Kevin Walters, is likely to switch the versatile Thomas Bosc to the last line of defence.