South Wales Scorpions’ biggest club weekend trip ever is about to take place with around 50 club members, representing the first team and second teams, going to the north-east of England.
The big Kingstone Press League 1 fixture against Newcastle Thunder on Sunday is the headline game at 3pm with the home side needing to win to have any chance of qualifying for the top eight. A win for the Scorpions will go a long way to giving them a higher position for the start of the League 1 Shield.
Scorpions’ coach Phil Carleton needed to make four changes from last week’s squad that pushed Hunslet Hawks close with Dai Evans, Connor Farrer, Bradley Hill and Osian Phillips all unavailable.
But co-captain Chris Vitalini returns from injury, with Scott Gregory and Anthony Symons also returning.
Ethan Coombes and Rhys Gant are in line for their first team debuts if selected, while Halifax’s Billy Gaylor will be unavailable for Scotland under 19s after being selected for the Scorpions’ first team on dual registration.
Sunday’s curtainraiser, played over the road from Kingston Park at the Bullockstead Sports Ground (kick-off noon), is a virtual junior international match with Scotland under 19 taking on the Scorpions reserves, as many of the Scorpions side will almost certainly be making the Wales under 18 squad later in the year.
Paul Emanuelli will coach the academy before co-captaining the first team in one of the club’s biggest challenges of the season.
He said: “This Sunday offers us the unusual but exciting chance of playing against an international side which the lads are real excited about.
“I’ve seen the squad and it looks very strong with a good few Super League academy players and if he doesn’t turn out for us on dual registration, Billy Gaylor of Halifax who’s done a great job for us.
“As always though, the training has been done around us and making sure we’ve prepared well rather than worry about them. The lads have really trained hard this week and our preparation has been spot on. I’m missing Sion jones who’s with the senior side and a few other key players but we’ve got a great squad and it just frees up opportunities for other lads to put their hand up.
“As a player, Newcastle offers a few different challenges to most weeks, they play on an artificial surface and it’s a very long trip for us.
“We won’t have any excuses Sunday though as everything has been laid out for us and our prep will be good.
“We’ve done okay in the last two games and have really made some improvements so the aim is to continue building and that big result isn’t far away.”
| FIRST TEAM SQUAD | SPONSOR | |
| 2 Ian Newbury | NatWest | @iannewbury |
| 3 Kyle Scrivens | Body Balance Sports and Hollistic Therapies | @scriv15 |
| 7 Paul Emanuelli | Sian Golden Translation and HG Landscapes Ltd | @10PAULO |
| 10 Izaak Duffy | Duffy and Co Solicitors | @IzaakDuffy |
| 13 Chris Vitalini | www.ianlovell.com | C Vitalini |
| 15 Jordan Sheridan | Cardiff Drain Cleaning Co | @JSheridan112 |
| 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 Ethan Coombes | Watts Truck & Van | @10Coombes |
| 25 Rhys Gant | Partnership of Care | @RhysGant1 |
| 26 Alex Davidson | On loan from All Golds | @AlexDavidson29 |
| 27 Courtney Davies | United Konsultants Ltd | @CourttDavies7 |
| 28 Sion Jones | Statstoner Cardiff | @Sionjon1997 |
| 29 Richard Jones | On loan from All Golds | R Jones |
| 30 Jamie Murphy | On loan from All Golds | @themurphyman |
| Billy Gaylor | Dual reg with Halifax | @Billy97Gaylor |
SCORPIONS RESERVES (from)
1 Ben Jones (captain)
2 Brandon Lamb
4 Lewis Williaott
6 Shane Lee
7 Rhys Gant
10 Jake Thomas
18 Sam Buckthought
21 Lewis Hughes
22 Jake MacDonald
23 Ethan Coombes
24 Josh Bardon
25 Macauley Harris
26 Cobi Green
28 Liam Silver
30 Lloyd Selby-Smith
32 Huw Parks
33 Fraser Stroud
34 George Lenton-Hall
NEWCASTLE THUNDER (from)
Tom Reudiger
Zach Clark
Derrell Olpherts
Joe Brown
Ali Blair
Josh Kittrick
Ben Hardcastle
Corbyn Kilday
Aaron Teroi
Mikey Wood
Rhys Clarke
Daniel Parker
Sam Luckley
Evan Simons
Jason Payne
Vincent Rennie
James Green
Ben Thorburn
Harry Aldous
SCOTLAND UNDER 19 (from)
Angus Grindlay – Aberdeen Warriors
Billy Gaylor – Halifax RLFC
Brandon Wilkinson – Bradford Bulls
Cameron Harrison – Edinburgh Eagles
Clayton Woods – Edinburgh Eagles
Connor Meikle – Eastehouse Panthers
Darren Bell – Strathmore Silverbacks
Davey Dixon – Castleford Tigers
Declan Miller – Easterhouse Panthers
Ewan McGuire – Strathmore Silverbacks
Fionn O’Donnell – Huddersfield Giants
Findlay Graham – Edinburgh Eagles
George Kinnaird – Coventry Bears
Jack Wilson – Strathmore Silverbacks
Luke Drummond – Elmbridge Eagles
Luke Walters – Leeds Beckett
Matthew Hogg – Edinburgh Eagles
Max Hutcheon – Easterhouse Panthers
Miles Wakeling – Elmbridge Eagles
Nial Sidney – Newcastle Thunder
Patrick Noutch – Wath Brow
Sam Blake – Wakefield
Sandy Rae – Newcastle Thunder
Scott Derrick – Easterhouse Panthers
Toby Williams © – Coventry Bears
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