CO_OPERATIVE RUGBY LEAGUE CONFERENCE MIDLANDS PREMIER DIVISION PREVIEW
Thursday 15 May 2008
The Gloucestershire Warriors continue their four-match, five-week road trip with their first ever visit to Derby City in the Co-operative Rugby League Conference Midland Premier division this Saturday (kick off 2.30pm).
Last season’s trip to Derby had to be cancelled owing to the impassability of Gloucestershire’s roads in the flooding crisis. The game was not rescheduled and was declared a 0-0 draw – the Warriors’ first ever draw.
This year, the weather seems set fair for a game and the Warriors are hoping to build on their emphatic 52-4 win at Leicester Phoenix last week.
The Warriors are unbeaten away from Chosen Hill and if they can maintain that over the next few weeks, then they will have a glut of home games in which to mount a title challenge.
City will be a tough nut to crack, however. They have won just one of their three games, they have been competitive but conceded vital tries.
Against Coventry, they were blown away in the first period and though they put up a determined show in the second period. A similar thing happened against Birmingham, but City recovered from 22-6 down to win 29-22 thanks to 21 points from stand off Paul Worthington.
Last week, City went down 42-10 to local rivals Nottingham Outlaws. They more than held their own in the first half, leading the Outlaws twice but faded after the break and were eventually overpowered by the unbeaten league leaders.
Having lost points machine Ben Thornton to the Outlaws, City seem to have uncovered another diamond in stand off Paul Worthington. He collected three tries, four goals and a field goal in his side’s win at Birmingham.
“I was delighted with our defensive effort against Leicester”, said Warriors coach Tom James. “We missed two tackles in the whole game and they scored once and should have scored a second but we were able to scramble and recover the situation”.
“We have trained well this week and I’m looking forward to seeing the guys put into practice on Saturday what we have done this week.”
The game is likely to be the last for the Warriors’ Samoan props Jack Petelo and Areta Tanoai. Softly spoken off the field, they both do their talking on it and combined well at Leicester when Petelo supplied the pass for Tanoai to score early in the second half. Petelo also added a late conversion to get his name on the scoresheet for the first time.
“They’ll leave a big hole, or rather two big holes”, smiled a Warriors spokesman. “Areta and Jack have been a big help to us this season and we hope they’ve enjoyed their experience of English rugby league.”
With Nottingham inactive this week, Coventry Bears will have the chance to snatch pole position in the table as they face Leicester Pheonix at Old Coventrians. The Phoenix have only registered two tries in their three games this season and have shipped in over 200 points. The result ought to be a foregone conclusion, but if the Phoenix can display the battling courage they produced in the first half against the Warriors last week, the Bears will have to work hard for every score.
Bedford Tigers entertain Birmingham Bulldogs in a game that looks to be evenly matched. The Bulldogs are a big, strong team for whom results have not yet been favourable. They have lost each of their two games by less than ten points and face a Tigers side still basking in the glow of their 100-point debut against Leicester despite defeat last week against Nottingham.
The Tigers look to be a capable side with plenty of scoring potential and a winner in this game looks tough to pick.
WARRIORS MILESTONES
The Warriors’ 52-4 win last week was their biggest ever over the Phoenix in Leicester, surpassing the 44-12 win achieved in 2007.
Ben Hough, Josh Pettifer and James Comber all scored tries on their debuts against the Phoenix. Hough also kicked three goals.
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L e a g u e
The Gloucestershire Rugby League is an organisation for local rugby league clubs in Gloucestershire. Our main activity currently is to promote rugby league through the County and give useful information about our sport to the public of Gloucestershire.
