Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Keighley Cougars v Rochdale Hornets

Reflecting on Keighley Cougars’ 66-6 win over coach Paul March felt his team had to peform well last week against South Wales.

He said: “It was one of those games where people expect you to put a score up and if we hadn’t they’d be saying South Wales have performed well. It was a sticky one to get over, I’m pleased we got through it. But it has come at a bit of a cost with Jodie Sheriffe likely to be out for a fair bit with a ruptured achilles.

“We go into the game against Rochdale without him and it’s going to be a tough game. The league positions say we’re the form sides.

“They had a good win last week after a poor performance against York, so we’re going to have to be on our guard. We know a lot about them, they came down with us last year, so we played them a couple of times, and they’ll know a lot about us.

“We need to prepare well, like we always do, and obviously the best team on the day will win the game.”

Ian Talbot, the Rochdale Hornets coach said: “It wasn’t the best performance against North Wales last week but a fantastic result.

“In games like that it’s not about how you play, it’s about picking those two points up and doing what you have to do to get those two points and the lads did it.

“It’s like going from the frying pan into the fire this week. North Wales are one of the best teams in the competition, as are Keighley.

“They’re runaway leaders at the minute so I hope we can go there, put in a performance and try and peg them back a little bit.”