NRC Preview: London v Halifax

London coach James Massara remains upbeat despite two heavy defeats at the start of their campaign.

The Skolars lost 50-4 against Dewsbury in their opening Northern Rail Cup fixture before slumping to a 60-12 reverse against Hunslet last week.

But Massara insisted: “We’ve got a really positive camp and there a lots of blokes here that are enjoying learning and enjoying the challenge.”

He added: “Obviously it was a disappointing result against Hunslet and there’s no hiding from that, but we’ll continue to work hard and there were a lot of positives to come out of it.

“This week Halifax will provide a very, very good challenge for us. There are guys here who this is where they’re aiming for and what they want to be. We need to focus on ourselves and improve on the areas we’ve identified. We’ll not be overawed by it.”

Massara will be forced into reshuffling his side after Liam Prescott (four matches) and Matt Carter (one match) picked up suspensions in midweek.

Gareth Honor and Jermaine Coleman also remain sidelined although Massara is hopeful they will be available next week.

Halifax coach Matt Calland looks set to change his squad after assistant coach Damian Ball confirmed that some players will only feature in reduced spells in the capital.

Ball said: “We’re expected to win this week but we want to make sure we perform a little better than we did last week.

“One thing we’ve got to be careful of is that we’re also going to be playing on Wednesday next week.”