Perfect prep for tackling leaders

Hornets face their toughest test of the Betfred League 1 season so far tomorrow when they travel to Colwyn Bay to take on league leaders North Wales Crusaders.

- RICHARD PARTINGTON

And coach Gary Thornton believes last week-end’s 70-6 drubbing of Newcastle Thunder provided the ideal shot-in-the-arm for Hornets after the disappointment of losing to Midlands Hurricanes on home turf earlier in the month.

“We were really disappointed after the defeat to Midlands, we spoke about

'We've got to be really good defending our try line because they have some big bodies'

that for two weeks in training, talked about how we thought we'd let ourselves down against them and we did,” said Thornton.

“We weren’t at our best and we lost the game to two or three really soft tries, two barge overs and a kick to the corner. We're trying to get that out of our game defensively.

“It was really pleasing to see a couple of sets that Newcastle had on our try line where they threw everything at us and we kept them out, apart from right at the death.

“It's something that we've got to be aware of and going to North Wales and then to Keighley the week after that, we've got to be really good on defending our try line because they've got some big bodies and they're hard to defend against.