Championship One preview: Gloucestershire v Hemel (Wed)

Gloucestershire All Golds coach Brad Hepi is aiming for a third league win of the season to haul his side within one point of Gateshead Thunder at the foot of the Kingstone Press Championship One table.

Hepi’s men collected a bonus point for their 35-28 defeat against London Skolars on Sunday.

Now Hepi, who will assess his squad’s fitness on Tuesday, is hoping to go one step further in Wednesday’s clash with Hemel Stags.

Stags are at full strength after two weeks off, but coach Troy Perkins is uncertain about his side’s reaction to an extended period without action.

Perkins said: “It’ll work in one of two ways: we’ll either be really fresh after a couple of weeks off, or we might be a bit off the pace. Hopefully it works in a positive way.

“We’ve five games to go and we want to do well in all of them.

“Gloucestershire have put a couple of good wins together and came back late on against the Skolars, so they’ll be full of confidence.

“They’ve managed to add a couple of quality players to their squad and they’re going to be a very tough test, but if we get a result we can move back up to third place. That’s our focus.”