Rochdale Hornets v South Wales Scorpions match preview

Rochdale Hornets v South Wales Scorpions (Sunday, 3.00)

 

South Wales Scorpions’ head coach Phil Carleton has promoted some young talent from the reserve side after an excellent performance in their game last week, as the first team travel to Rochdale Hornets this Sunday.

 

Sion Jones, who scored five tries in last week’s 68-14 win over Oxford Reserves, is selected for a potential second match for the first team, while 20-year old winger Lewis Hughes, who has scored six times in four games for the reserves this season, is in line for a potential first team debut.

 

Hughes, who started his playing career at Bridgend Blue Bulls just last year, became a Wales Dragonhearts international, and signed for the Scorpions earlier this season. He previously played rugby union for Pencoed.

 

Former Warrington Wolves Academy prop Bob Holroyd, on dual registration from Halifax, is another potential debutant.

 

The Scorpions are counting the costs of a tough game against Barrow Raiders last week with a number of players from that game joining the injury list.

 

Winger Dai Evans is one who won’t make the trip to Rochdale Hornets this Sunday but he is hoping to be back for the Big Welsh Derby against North Wales Crusaders on Saturday 4^th June at Cardiff Arms Park.

 

Chris Davies, Izaak Duffy and Osian Phillips will also miss Sunday’s game but Ian Newbury returns from injury after making his comeback in the reserves last week.

 

Scorpions’ coach Phil Carleton said: “Barrow were better than us but I don’t think they were that much better. We were far from where I expect us to be. We completed 12 sets in total and the disappointing thing is that we didn’t kick on from York. We missed 10 tackles and they scored eight tries, it was far too easy and we were far too soft.

 

“We’ve got a real tough test this week at Rochdale. We’re not in awe of them but we know we’ve just got to be better. The frustrating thing is we know we can do it and looking back at that second half against York we know we can compete. We’ve worked hard, so fingers crossed we can right a few wrongs.”

 

Rochdale Hornets won 52-24 at Oxford last week. Their coach Alan Kilshaw said: “I think the scoreline flattered us a little bit, they gave us a real game for 60 minutes and then probably our physicality got us home. We’d made a good platform early on and managed to pull away in that last 20 minutes.

 

“This will be our last home game for a while so we want to put a performance in and reward those fans who have been watching us home and away. That’s our focus this week.

 

“This will be our 14th consecutive weekly game, no other team has done that. Our lads deserve a big rap for that. To get up thirteen weeks in a row, it’s a long stretch. We’re really looking at earning that week off the following this game, then we have three games in a row away.”

 

Rochdale have back rowers Stu Biscomb (concussion) and Jordan Case (leg injury) will both be missing but have Joe Philpin, Sam Wilde and Dan Murray from Warrington Wolves via their dual-registration arrangement.

 

South Wales Scorpions’ next home game is against North Wales Crusaders – the Big Welsh Derby – which is to be played at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday 4^th June (kick-off 5pm).

 

The match  is the culmination of a day’s worth of events which sees the Scorpions reserve side take on Super League academy side Salford Red Devils at 2.30pm as well as Wales’ biggest community derby game when Valley Cougars take on Torfaen Tigers at 12.30pm.

 

Tickets and hospitality for this big event can be bought by going to www.scorpionsrl.com.

 

 

SCORPIONS SQUAD	SPONSOR	TWITTER
2 Ian Newbury	Nat West	@iannewbury
3 Kyle Scrivens	Body Balance Sports and Hollistic Therapies	@scriv15
4 Yannic Parker	Court House Care Homes	@yannicparker
7 Paul Emanuelli	Sian Golden Translation and HG Landscapes Ltd	@10PAULO
13 Chris Vitalini	www.ianlovell.com	C Vitalini
15 Jordan Sheridan	Cardiff Drain Cleaning Co	@JSheridan112
17 Mike Connor	J.Beechey Carpentry Building & Roofing Services	@MichaelConnor06
19 Kristian Baller	Mirmidon Ltd	@kballer1987
20 Anthony Symons	King Construction Consultants	A Symons
21 Scott Gregory	Castle Health Ltd	@scottgregs12
22 Christiaan Roets	United Konsultants Ltd	@roetsy458
23 Barrie Phillips	United Konsultants Ltd	@bizzalkicks
24 Zak Williams	AG Williams Building Maintenance and Forces Fitness	@wzak77
26 Luke Nelmes	Dual reg with Halifax	L Nelmes
28 Sion Jones	Statstoner Cardiff	@Sionjon1997
30 Billy Gaylor	Dual reg with Halifax	@Billy97Gaylor
Martyn Reilly	Dual reg with Halifax	@ReillyMartyn
Bob Holroyd	Dual reg with Halifax	@Rob79Bob
Lewis Hughes	Celtic Electrical Services Ltd	@LewisHughes81

 

ROCHDALE HORNETS (from)

1              Wayne English

2              Chris Riley

3              Micheal Ratu

4              Lewis Galbriath

5              Dale Bloomfield

6              Paul Crook

7              Danny Yates

8              Dan Murray

9              Ben Moores

10           Warren Thompson

11           Jono Smith

13           James Tilley

15           Samir Tahraoui

16           Matty Hadden

21           Harry Files

22           Alex Trumper

26           Kane Ditchfield

28           Sam Wilde

29           Joe Philbin

 

 

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