Preview: Whitehaven v Leigh

Whitehaven coach Dave Woods has doubts over James Cameron (groin) and Jamie Rooney (shin), but expects both players to face Leigh Centurions in front of the Premier Sports cameras.

The hosts have made an impressive start to life in the Kingstone Press Championship, following a victory against York City Knights with a 16-12 win at Keighley Cougars that earned ‘Haven the Premier Sports Performance of the Week award.

But Woods has warned his men they need to improve again if they want to secure a hat-trick of wins.

Woods said: “At the start of the year we’d have jumped all over two from two, and we’re really happy with the way we’ve started against two teams that were in this division last year.

“It’s about being smart in this division. You can’t come up with errors or teams will punish you, and we’ve done a lot of work on fitness as well. We’ve just got to get a little smarter with the ball in hand.

“Leigh are a team that if you blink, you can be 40 points down. They’ve got quality all over the field. You can’t afford to give them easy sniffs of the try-line.”

Centurions are set to be unchanged, with coach Paul Rowley reporting a clean bill of health after last week’s 40-0 win over Hunslet Hawks.

Rowley said: “Home advantage really does still count in the Kingstone Press Championship due to the variable shapes, sizes and slopes you play on. It’ll be worth a few points to Whitehaven, but we defended well last week.

“Whitehaven have got some good personnel among their ranks and they’ve started as I thought they would. They will be a tough nut to crack.”