Sheens anticipates tough Batley test

Hull KR boss Tim Sheens says he expects another tough game when the Championship leaders visit Batley on Sunday.

Rovers secured a 50-16 home victory over Batley at the start of April, but Sheens admits the Bulldogs gave his team plenty to think about.

“It’s going to be a tough game at Batley with the conditions and pitch there – they’re a strong side and they gave us plenty of problems when we played them at home a few weeks ago,” Sheens told the club’s official website.

“They’ve got a smart pair of halves and some skilful forwards. They throw the ball around and they have a different style to most teams. They tested us on our edges the last time we played them and whilst we did well to shut them down, they still put points on us.

“We expect that this will be that much tougher with it being away from home. The slope at their ground is part of it, but it’s a short field and not as wide as our own pitch, so that limits our back-line opportunities.

“It will test us in the middle, but we’ve got a solid game in that area as long as we work hard. We are missing a bit of grunt up the middle but that means the likes of Mitch Clark, Ben Kavanagh and Robbie Mulhern will all get a bit more time on the field and they all did a good job for us last week.

“We know them and they know us, so it’s going to come down to attitude and we need to turn up with the right one.”