Kingstone Press League 1 preview: Oxford v London Skolars

Tim Rumford, the Oxford coach, was pleased with his side’s performance at Newcastle Thunder.

“We went toe to toe with a very good Newcastle side and I think some of our guys learned a lot from that game,” he said.

“Having the four lads in from Bradford certainly helps and it’s really brought some people on – that’s what it’s designed to do.

“Despite us not winning games the dual-registration process is working for us and can work for expansion clubs. It helps upskill our guys and gives them a real insight into what is required at professional level.

“It’s a big game for us against Skolars, we respect them, they’re a decent side with some good players. Eventually they’re going to turn it on and string some performances together.

“It’s probably an evenly matched game on paper, some of the defensive things against Newcastle we’ll be looking to replicate and there’s one or two things we need to fix up.

London Skolars coach Jermaine Coleman said: “Oxford will be a tough game, we’ve already played them once this season, so I know what we’re coming up against. They’ve got a real good set of forwards who are quite physical and some experienced backs and now with the dual registration with Bradford they got some quality players in.

“It will be a difficult task especially on that pitch, they’ve got some pace in the backs with Sean Morris and Aaron Jones-Bishop. They play a pretty expansive game so we’ll have to be on the ball.

“The good thing for us is we had a pretty new team at the weekend and we’ll have another week together before we play. The team’s changed over the last five or six weeks, we now have some half backs in our ranks which is going to help us massively. I’m genuinely interested in how we go at the weekend and very excited to see how we perform.”