WITH an opening day 20-12 defeat of Rotherham under their belts, the Tigers make the short trip to face local rivals Manchester for the eagerly awaited derby.

The newly promoted Grove Park side suffered a heavy 62-0 defeat at Bedford last week and so will be looking to turn things around.

However, Tigers’ Director of Rugby, Tim Fourie, was playing down the hype.

“It’s a derby game, they got well beaten last week and they’ll have former Sedgley players Richard Oxley, Ed Norris and Ben Lloyd in their line-up, so there will be an edge,” he said.

“But we’re not going there to prove any points; we can’t afford to let ourselves get distracted. We’ve just got to concentrate on doing our job; it’s just another game we have to win.

“The pressure is all on them and the players we have this season will not take Manchester lightly; complacency is not an option.”

The only casualty from last Saturday’s win was the shoulder injury suffered by former Scotland centre, Andy Craig. It will keep him out of action for two to three weeks, with Chris Hall replacing him in the starting 15 and Phil Largan in turn replacing Hall on the bench.   

As a result the Tigers go into the game in confident mood: "If we can do that to Rotherham, who have supposedly brought in a number of players to take them up to the next level, then we can do it to other sides, so why not Manchester?” said skipper Phil Jones.

SEDGLEY TIGERS @ Manchester

15 Matt RILEY
14 Peter SWATKINS
13 Chris HALL
12 Lisiate TAFA
11 Paul WILCOCK
10 Phil JONES
9 Chris LECK
1 Phil GAZZOLA
2 Jonny RODDAM
3 Petrus DU PLESSIS
4 Tim FOURIE
5 Glen TOWNSON
6 Juan CROUS
7 Adam NEWTON
8 Ollie COOK

16 Alistair LIVESEY
17 Gareth ROBERTS
18 Danny GREENHALGH
19 Dean WILLIAMS
20 Dave LIVESEY
21 Chris WILKINSON
22 Phil LARGAN