Roughyeds are set for their biggest game of the season as they take on Keighley at Boundary Park this Sunday, with the winners handed a huge advantage in the race to be crowned 2024 League One champions.
Sean Long’s men will be looking to right some wrongs from when they came up desperately short against Cougars earlier this season.
Roughyeds go into the game on the back of five straight wins, but last week’s 32-6 victory over North Wales was far from comfortable.
And captain Jordan Turner has urged his team-mates, ahead of Sunday’s top-of-the-table showdown, to improve their ball control.
“It’s the same old story for us this year,” said Turner. “We need to tidy up with the ball to take us to the next level.
“We have got some great conditioning, so we know we can stick in games and if we keep turning sides away, things will turn for us. But we need to get better when we have the ball.”
Keighley have proven, so far this year, they are not infallible having lost to Hunslet, drawn with Rochdale and been far from convincing in wins against Midlands and Workington.
Cougars, clearly unhappy with recent results, took the drastic step of sacking coach Matt Foster with director of rugby Jake Webster now in charge.
With the 28-18 defeat to Keighley still fresh in the mind, Turner is not taking the West Yorkshire side lightly.
“The last time we played against them, our defence actually wasn’t that great and they caused us a lot of problems,” he admitted.
“The leapfrogging at the top of the table is a bit irrelevant because I think we’re both pretty much of a similar quality.
“I think we need to work on everything this week, because this weekend is massive for us.”
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