Huddersfield head coach Gareth Lewis is confident his players can build on their Sheffield Tigers pre-season display when they host Yorkshire Carnegie in their final warm-up clash at Lockwood Park tomorrow night.
The men from Lockwood Park produced some positive moments in South Yorkshire before falling 32-26 to one of the National III North title favourites.
But even though Huddersfield compete one level higher in the national rugby union structure – in National II North – Lewis is feeling upbeat ahead of facing the might of Championship club Carnegie (7.30).
“There were certainly far more positives than negatives to come out of our game against the Tigers,” said Lewis.
“They’re one of the favourites to win National III North, so we always knew this would be a good challenge and the sort we need before our League opener at home to South Leicester on September 5.
“At this stage of the year, it’s more about performance than the result, and when you use about 23 players – which we did at Sheffield at the weekend – you know it’s going to be far from perfect. When you’re chopping and changing so much to give every player a run, you’re obviously going to lack a bit of cohesion.
“But at the time when we did see our combinations coming together, we did have a fair amount of cohesion, and we’ll be looking to build on that.
“I was very encouraged with the way we looked with ball in hand and we’ll be looking to build on this against Carnegie, but new know there’s still work to do defensively. That’s definitely going to be tested to the full tomorrow night.”
Lewis was particularly encouraged by the individual displays of No7 Lewis Bradley, scrum-half Dan Jeffrey and utility back Nick Rawsthorne against the Tigers.
And he was also delighted to have experienced forward Gavin Rhodes back in the fold after taking time off last season.
“A number of players really stood up on the day,” added the head coach, who didn’t have experienced trio Ben Morrill, Austin Thompson and Laurence Sanderson available to him at the weekend.
“For starters, I thought young Lewis Bradley did exceptionally well when he came off the bench at half-time, He’s only 18, but handled things exceptionally well and looks like he’ll be pushing Ben Hoyle for the No7 shirt.
“Dan Jeffrey bossed the forwards around all game and made a couple of good half-breaks, while Nick Rawsthorne looks to have stepped up another level since making his move from Carnegie permanent. He really does have pace to burn.
“And it was great to see Gavin back out there.
“He decided to take a bit of a back seat last season, but he got itchy feet and decided he wanted to get his boots back on, which we’re all delighted about. The break’s made him even hungrier, so we’re definitely expecting him to waster little time getting back to his best.”
