Kingstone Press Championship Preview: Dewsbury Rams v Sheffield Eagles

Dewsbury Rams coach Glenn Morrison is hoping for a change of luck on Friday evening.

In the two years that the Australian coach has been in charge of Dewsbury, his team is yet to beat Sheffield Eagles.

He is feeling confident after a solid preseason, however.

“We’ve had a real good pre-season and had some good results against some full-time squads,” he said.

“We wanted to see where we’re at and put a bit of a marker down. The performance was good and it was good to get the result as well.

“We know that pre-season results don’t count for anything, it’s all about this weekend. We’ve got to be switched on and put our best foot forward to get the result we want.”

Morrison will be without forward Zach Johnson, who picked up a four-match ban following an incident in the preseason match with Newcastle Thunder.

“Ryan Fieldhouse, Stephen Nash and Greg Scott are still out due to knee operations they had in the off season, but apart from that everybody’s fit– it’s going to be tough to pick a side,” Morrison added.

Sheffield adopt a different approach to preseason, and don’t play any friendlies.

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as friendly Rugby League games,” said Mark Aston, Eagles director of rugby.

“By the sheer physical element of it, it’s not friendly. I think we play a lot of rugby, so why put another three, four or five on my players?

“That doesn’t mean that we haven’t been physical because we train pretty intensely and physically, always have done.

Aston is waiting on the fitness of new signing Jamie Langley, while second row John Davies and captain Mitchell Stringer are several weeks away from returning.

“But there’s plenty in the squad who can jump in now and make a statement,” said Aston.

“At least one team’s going to be playing in the Million Pound Game so there’s a buzz about the place which is great for the game.”