Ben’s ready for some friendly fire

It will be a case of friends reunited at Percy Road when Hull take on Pocklington for prop Ben Bootham.
Every time they ‘crouch, bind and set’ for a scrum, Bootham will lock horns with his mate Chris Morton in a personal duel within a greater battle.
The scrum was one part of Hull’s game that worked very well in beating Rossendale 31-13 last weekend and Bootham is keen for that to continue regardless of his friendship with Morton.
“I have a few old friends playing for Pocklington,” Bootham said.
“I’ll be up against my mate Chris Morton at loose.
“We were solid in the scrum and in set pieces throughout last week’s game.
“If we play like we did then there’s nobody in this league we can’t beat.
“I played against Pocklington a couple of years ago in North East One and they are one of teams that recruits well and they are a good team.
“They will be up for it as much as we will be.
“They will want to put a mark on us especially as we’ve beaten the team that made the play-offs last season.”
Bootham was one of five debutants against Rossendalealong with fly-half Steve Johnson, flying wingers Callum Lancaster and Mike Adlard and fellow prop Mike Dias.
Normally it takes a while for a side to gel especially with a third of the team getting used to each other.
But that wasn’t the case for Hull who hit the ground running.
“You couldn’t have told five new players,”Bootham said.
“Everything seemed to link together.
“I have fitted in easier to this club than any of the others I’ve been at.
“We just need to replicate last week’s performance.
“We kept telling ourselves to have cool heads and we did that when things were a bit rough and tumble.
“The telling thing for me was when they scored, we scored immediately. They couldn’t keep up with us.”