Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: University of Gloucestershire All Golds v London Skolars

Correspondent

University of Gloucestershire All Golds coach Lee Greenwood was pleased with his side’s win over Oxford.

“We started off really well last week,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we had the game won but went a long way to doing that. It got a bit scrappy and Oxford gave us a bit of a fright to be honest but I think we thoroughly deserved the win.

“We jumped above Oxford so obviously it’s another massive game on Saturday. Although we’re not getting any prize money from it, it would be nice to finish as the best southern team.

“It’s our third season and some of the other southern clubs have been going a bit longer than us, so if we can finish above them it would be a good achievement for us. Skolars will come marking us as a potential win so we need to do the business.”

Despite London Skolars defeat to Oldham, coach Jermaine Coleman could take some positives out of the performance.

“I said to the boys last week that we’re not a bad defensive side, considering how much ball we don’t have,” he said.

“At the weekend I think we had 14 sets in the first half and completed seven and after 37 minutes we were only 6-0 down.

“If we learn how to hold onto the ball and start making other teams defend a little bit more, then all of a sudden that points difference might come down.

“In the games we have managed to do that, the results have been fairly good.

“Gloucester came to our place and gave us a bit of a rude awakening and for 20 minutes blew us away. We were probably never in the game after that.

“The challenge is there for us, we know what we’re going to come up against. Defensively they’ve got really good line speed, their wrestling is excellent, they carry the ball and mean it when they carry it.

“Physically we’re going to have to be up for that challenge this weekend but we also need to be mentally switched on and make sure our completion and finishes to our sets are positive.”

Prop Anthony Cox is doubtful with a hamstring problem