NEW signing Gary Lord makes his home debut for Cougars on Sunday -- with the job of filling Stevie Hall's boots among the team's forwards.

Lord was snapped up by coach Karl Harrison as a straight replacement for the Keighley stalwart who flew out to Australia on Monday to be with his wife who is having treatment for skin cancer.

The 33-year-old forward has a wealth of experience after playing with Leeds, Halifax and Oldham in the old first division and Super League. He joined Cougars from Hunslet.

"He is a very solid type of player who tackles well and carries the ball up for the hard yards," Karl Harrison said.

He made his debut from the sub's bench at Sheffield and has already made his mark with the rest of the squad. "He is a very bubbly kind of character and has already fit in well in the dressing room," Karl said.

The man he replaces, Stevie Hall, was on the terraces to watch his team mates for one last time before flying out to his new home in Northern Queensland. During the half time interval Cougar managing director, Bob Chapman, presented him with a cut glass tankard as a token of thanks from the club for his years of service.

"Steve has seen the club through the good times, and was part of the team which won the Third Division championship followed by the Second Division title and the Division Two play-off at Old Trafford.

"He will be greatly missed by everyone at the club," Mr Chapman said.

In an emotional reply Steve Hall said he was disappointed to be leaving.

"I would like to have stayed for the play-offs, but unfortunately that cannot be," he said.

After suffering the disruption left by Hall's departure, the team faced a second blow when fullback Dean Hanger was carried from the pitch with a knee injury. Initially it looked as if he could be out of the team for weeks and could also miss the play-off competition which starts on July 9.

However, he was seen by a specialist on Monday and had an operation on his knee the following day.

"He had a bucket handle tear to his cartilage which had ben troubling him for some time. The part which had torn away had got stuck in the joint locking his knee.

"Fortunately they have been able to sort it out fairly easily and he should be back in light training fairly soon and available for selection in time for the first game in the play-offs."

James Rushforth is due to take Hanger's place at fullback for Sunday's home game against Whitehaven Warriors.

"He was a bit weak in defence at the start of the season, but has been working hard on that in training. I thought he was one of our better performers at Sheffield," Karl Harrison said.

Craig Horne will also be in the starting line-up after fighting his way back from injury. He will slip into the spot vacant right wing spot after Rushforth collects the No1 shirt.

"Our aim for the last couple of league matches is to pick up two points each time, and who knows Dewsbury might slip up against Leigh and Oldham - and we could end up top of the league, Karl said.

But he has warned his players not to take things easy against the Warriors.

"They are on a bit of a roll at the moment and put 40 points past Hull KR last weekend. We need to go out and hit them hard," he said.