Coventry vs Scorpions Preview

South Wales Scorpions and Coventry Bears have named their 19-man squads for the clash at The Butts Arena today (kick-off 3pm).

Injuries and unavailabilities have forced Scorpions’ coach Phil Carleton into a number of changes from last week but Paul Emanuelli returns to replace Courtney Davies who is struggling with a leg injury.

Ben Jones, Jake Thomas and Scott Gregory also return with Luke Nelmes and Jamie Stringer down on loan from Halifax.

South Wales Scorpions put in another good performance against Newcastle Thunder despite losing 28-16. Carleton said: “I was pleased and frustrated. I’d really like the boys to get their noses over the line because they deserve it for all the effort and hard work. It’s frustrating because but for tiny little margins we’d be there. But it is what it is, we’ve got four games and we believe all four are winnable. They’re not going to be easy but if we can pick those four wins up, it will be a great end of the year.

“When we went up to Coventry last time we started really well but Coventry showed that they are a side who have won a few and they pipped us. We’re confident, they’ll have improved from the last time we played them and will have learned a bit more about us but I know we’ve come on a step from that. I’m hoping we get it all right and with the bounce of the ball on the day we should be okay.”

Coventry Bears’ first team didn’t play last week but a number of their players turned out in the reserves who lost 40-8 at Valley Cougars in Treharris.

But many of their squad had a break, which has given them time to get over some bumps and bruises according to coach Tom Tsang.

“Everyone’s pretty much back to full health now, which is good,” he said. “We played South Wales three games ago and they gave us a real scare. We managed to just scrape a win but they’ll definitely think that it’s one that got away from them and will be wanting to come back and get their revenge.

“They ran Crusaders close and Newcastle close so they’ll be coming to us confident they can get a result. We need to be sure we’re firing on all cylinders and do a professional job to get the win.”

Coventry Bears (from)