CONFIDENCE and an air of ‘daring-do’ will be what the Sedgley Tigers will be packing on the flight down to Exeter on Saturday morning as they aim to build on their defeat of Coventry last Saturday with a win at Launceston.

A short flight followed by a coach journey across the Tamar River into Cornwall will see the Tigers arrive at Launceston ready for the fray, with the memory of last week’s comeback fresh in their minds.

“We didn’t play brilliantly against Coventry, we made a lot of mistakes; we struggled in the scrums and line-outs and were disappointed with our set pieces,” said Tigers’ Director of Coaching, Tim Fourie.

“We went 14 points down from intercept and penalty tries and still managed to comeback, which was a massive positive especially against a full-time outfit like Cov.

“The difference was instead of grumbling and falling out with each other when things went wrong we knuckled down and got ourselves back in the game.

“We showed a lot of character and composure to not only grind out a win but also claim the bonus point. We were determined we were not going to just roll over and die.

“We made a couple of ballsy decisions where instead of going for the points by kicking for goal we kicked for the corners and from the resulting line-outs we scored two tries and that set us up. Instead of trying to control what they did we concentrated on controlling what we did.”

This Saturday it is a trip down to the far south west to face ND1 new boys, the self-styled Cornish All Blacks. The fact they currently prop up the ND1 table will count for nothing in Fourie’s eyes.

“They are a tough team on their own patch, particularly in the forwards, they should have a good crowd behind them so it is not going to be easy, even if they are new to this level of rugby,” he said.

“We are expecting them to tire the last 25 minutes and with the strength in depth we have on the bench at the moment with the likes of Phil Jones, Ed Norris and Chris Briers we will go down there confident we can return with a win, but like I said, it will not be easy.

“I remember playing them a few years ago in a promotion play-off two-gamer and although we beat them home and away the game down there was particularly tight.

“Like us they will be targeting this fixture as a game they can win, they will be all revved-up and we will have to be prepared to cope with what they will undoubtedly throw at us.”

His main concern is a back injury to prop Petrus Du Plessis. Without long-term front-row casualties Gerallt Evans and Phil Gazzola, he is left with just two props experienced at this level, Du Plessis and Martin Halsall, with only Sale Sharks youngster Danny Birchall to fall back on.

LAUNCESTON              v       SEDGLEY PARK
 
BIRKETT, Andy          15       RILEY, Matt
JESS, Matt             14       BRIERS, Chris
SWEENEY, Marc          13       CRAIG, Andy
PERRY, Steve           12       PAYNE, Freeman
FABIAN, John           11       VAN DEVENTER, Jan
ALRED, Start           10       NUTT, Steve
ALFORD, Sam             9       ALBINSON, Jamie
BOLT, Jason             1       HALSALL, Martin
HAMBLY, Owen            2       RODDAM, Jonny
REED, Wayne             3       DU PLESSIS, Petrus
PAPE, Steve             4       FOURIE, Tim
PARKER, Tom             5       TOWNSON, Glen
LORD, Josh              6       NEWTON, Adan
ROQUES, Tony            7       PONTON, Jimmy
KIMBERLEY, Dave         8       SKURR, Jon
 
LIDDINGTON, Richard    16       BIRCHALL, Danny
BROOKING, Keith        17       KEYS, Paul
JENKINS, Bryn          18       GAZZOLA, Phil
RAWLINGS, Tom          19       CROUS, Juan
TURNER, Ben            20       NORRIS, Ed
WESTREN, Ryan          21       WILKINSON, Chris
DIBBLE, Marc           22       JONES, Phil