Kingstone Press League 1 preview: Hemel Stags v Swinton Lions

Hemel Stags coach Troy Perkins is hoping for a big improvement in his team this week.

“Hopefully the players are a bit rejuvenated and are ready to make big improvements,” he said.

“We won’t win many games this year if we carry on defending like we have been. Swinton will be looking to get back to winning ways after the disappointment of losing in the iPro Sport Cup final.

“They’re a good team, they beat us in the first round of the iPro Sport Cup earlier in the season.

“They’ve got some experienced players, like to move the ball a fair bit and have some big forwards who get them on a roll. They’ve got threats all over the field, so it’s going to be another testing game for us.

“We just need to improve our defence and make sure we don’t concede anywhere near the tries we have been doing. If you don’t defend you can cop a hammering like we have done the last couple of weeks.”

John Duffy, the Swinton Lions coach said: “Obviously we were disappointed at the weekend, it was an experience for us but we’ve just got to look after our league performances now.

“We played Hemel earlier in the year and it was a tough game for 40/50 minutes.”