Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: University of Gloucestershire All Golds v Oxford
University of Gloucestershire All Golds lost to York City Knights last week and coach Lee Greenwood feels his side needs to be more resilient.
“There’s some mental toughness issues with some of the guys,” he said.
“As soon as they tire they don’t want to put that bit of extra effort in. You get found out by the better teams, York are one of the better teams and they did that, they’ve got some smart players.
“Obviously Tim (Rumford) will be disappointed with Oxford’s performance last week and he’ll be looking for a big response, as I will be from our players. Last time we played them they out-enthused us and we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again on Saturday.
“They’re just two points above us in the table, but we’ve got a better points difference so we know if we beat them we’ll go above them and that’s our motivation.”
Oxford are looking to bounce back after being beaten 96-4 by Swinton Lions.
Coach Tim Rumford said: “It was a fair old hiding; they’ll have to go away, lick their wounds and learn from it. The big thing now is to get the boys up for the game against Gloucester.
“There were a few players from the local area who played against Swinton who hadn’t played before. They put their hands up and asked for a shot and to a degree it’s a sharp learning curve for them.
“It also highlights how much learning and development these players have got to undertake before we get serious about them playing professional rugby league regularly.
“It’s very difficult to keep them motivated and playing with hidings like that. The way forward is to make sure that doesn’t happen again, it’s no good for the game or the club.
“There will be a lot of changes in our team this week. There’ll certainly have to be a change in attitude and a really big emphasis on character and getting people back up.
“But what an opportunity it represents for us to turn round a massive loss like that with a win.
“Our challenge is to get people talking positively about us again.”
