Reardon ready to fight Crusaders’ relegation battle

North Wales threequarter Stuart Reardon is ready for a tough fight to stave off relegation for the rest of the season.

The Crusaders lost a game they might well have won on Sunday at Sheffield Eagles. With five teams going down at the end of the season, there is no doubt as to what his and the team’s goal is the rest of the campaign.

Reardon feels that the team must learn to compete better in the middle, and complete sets, if they are to succeed in their aims.

“We want to avoid relegation. If we can do that then it would be a great season for a newly promoted side,” he told Love Rugby League.

“But there’s a lot of sides in the mix with five teams going down, so we’re taking every game as it comes, and look at performance rather than setting goals.

“This league is very like the Super League of old, in that good completion and a strong pack will win you games.

“That’s what we’ve got to get in our game, as newly promoted side, we’ve got to complete our sets and get in the arm wrestle.

“We need the bonus points, it makes the championship more competitive having the bonus point.

“I think we’re building each week, defence is a lot stronger, and we’re staying in games, whereas a few weeks ago we’ve been getting some big scores against us.

“So we’ll take a positive away from that.”

If the Crusaders were able to stay in the Championship, it would hand a big boost to rugby league in Wales.

Reardon is optimistic that the club is healthy enough to bounce back strongly, however, even if they do go down.

“It’s very important, obviously with South Wales in Championship One,” he added.

“It’s very important for the club, as a building process, and going forward, for us to stay up.

“But if we don’t, then we’ll have to rebuild for next year.

“But the goal is to stay up, and has been from day one.”