Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood is excited about the prospect of seeing his new look team in action again.
The Rams take on Featherstone in their first Yorkshire Cup game and Greenwood is looking forward to it.
He said: “I am looking forward to our game, Featherstone are going through a transitional period. Their team looks stronger than last week and they have been aided by getting some Leeds players in, which is odd for a friendly but that is up to them we have our own problems to worry about.
“For the lads that didn’t play boxing day it will be an opportunity. If they can’t get an opportunity in a friendly then we are struggling aren’t we. So there are seven players that didn’t play boxing day that are fit and chomping at the bit to play.”
Greenwood expects the game to be very much like the game against Batley, however he is also hoping to see some improvement from his team.
He commented: “We will still be limited tomorrow with stuff to do, we aren’t giving them a game plan to do everything. We will be limited with the things we do tomorrow but there are reasons for that.
“It maybe a bit more physical than how we will play but within that we are looking for improvements on what we did boxing day. There were bits that weren’t great in that game and other things got better as we went along. We will kick on again and I’d like to see a progression and improvement leading up to the Rochdale game.
“I was glad we played Batley boxing day and play Featherstone next. It means we are playing two Championship sides straight away and shows us what we are up against. Both teams are traditional Championship clubs and so it gives us a good marker of whee we are at.
“We are playing three games regardless but you’d rather win all three and say you have won the cup. However I certainly aren’t going to pick my strongest 13 now and just leave them on the field for 80 minutes just to do that. In the back of my head I am building it up to the Rochdale game that’s why those lads who didn’t get a run out on boxing day will play against Featherstone and others who did play against Batley and will play tomorrow have got improvements to make. Then within that I want to come away from these three games either knowing we have won that or came close to winning them. I sort of got that feeling after boxing day that if we were to play Batley again we could potentially win, if we don’t win tomorrow I want to come away with that feeling again.
“Of course we want to win, we want to make it a hard place to come again here, and that starts in any competition and tomorrow.”
Before Featherstone take on the Rams at 3.30pm KO. York City Knights will be taking on Hunslet Parkside in the 1pm KO game at the stadium.
Greenwood will be watching that game with interest as the Rams could draw both in the Yorkshire Cup, and Dewsbury do play York in their second Championship fixture.
“I am looking forward to the York vs Hunslet Parkside fixture.” He said.
He continued: “With York being in our division, and I like what Hunslet Parkside are doing, it should be a good game and an interesting tussle. We could play both later in the Yorkshire Cup and we play York quite early in the season so I will take a look at that game.
“I don’t know how much I’ll get from it, although Hunslet will be well up for it, York will be playing a professional outfit when they play us, so it will be a different game. We’ll learn how they are physically but I doubt they will be giving anything away like we won’t be. However it will be an interesting watch because Hunslet did really well in the conference where they were undefeated. We could draw them in the Yorkshire Cup or the Challenge Cup so I’ll be watching both teams with interest.”
