Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: All Golds v Hemel Stags

University of Gloucestershire All Golds coach Lee Greenwood was not pleased with his team’s performance last week.

“Last week against Oxford wasn’t good enough and the players know that,” he said.

“Oxford deserved it, they were more enthusiastic and seemed to want it a little bit more across the 17.

“We’ve just carried on what we’ve been doing all season – one good performance and one poor one. We just need to find that consistency.

“You’ve got to turn up every week and we’re not doing that. There will be changes this week, some enforced some not and certain players are running out of chances.

“Hemel are a decent side. I’ve watched their last few games and although they’ve been beaten heavily in a couple of them, they’ve looked good for parts of the game. They seem to concede a lot of points in a row, which can happen against some of the Northern teams.

“They’ve had a tough run of fixtures and they’re looking to come to us and win. For me it’s a fifty/fifty game. Both teams have got some good individuals across the board and are solid so it’s down to whichever team turns up on the day.”

Hemel Stags lost 32-8 to Swinton Lions last week but coach Troy Perkins saw positives in the defeat.

“I was really happy with our performance,” he said.

“We drastically improved our defence and with five minutes to go we were 20-8 down so there was a big improvement in that area. But it can’t be just a one-off, we need to improve again and again and just get a lot better.

“Swinton are a good team, we tested them for long periods and there were a lot of positives to come out of it. Hopefully we’ve turned a corner but we still lost and need to turn that around this week against Gloucester.

“They are a team who have never beaten us so the big challenge is to keep that unbeaten record against the All Golds. They have recruited really well and have got quality all over the field; they’ll be looking to get back to winning ways after their loss last week.”