Beverley head across the Pennines for their National North 3 fixture against Rossendale after having to call off last weeks game against Sale FC due to Beaver Park being waterlogged. Rossendale sit in 3rd place coming off a very good away win against Billingham away and will be looking to maintain that winning way up against a Beverley side not having played for a few weeks. Director of Rugby, Junior Tupai commented;
“We could’ve done without last Saturday against Sale being off but not much we can do about it the way our pitches have been hammered by the rain last week. I’ve got to give credit to John Nel who has been doing a great job maintaining our pitches but with the amount of standing water on the pitch, it was a no brainer to call it off”.
Rossendale have shown some consistently recently and have strung a few wins together after struggling early in the season but seem to be back on track. Tupai continued;
“They are a class team. We’ve had some good battles at their place and at one stage it was a bit of a fortress up there but the few seasons we’ve got on top at their place. They have a big pack and some good young backs who will threaten us in most areas but hopefully we can go there and make a good account for ourselves”.
Rossendale have in their ranks a former Beverley player, Paddy Pole who spent a 2 seasons at Beverley in 2005-07 and has been a stalwart for them as well as a thorn in Beverley’s side scoring a number of match winning tries.
Tupai said;
“He’s a massive player for them. Just so happens that when he plays us he seems to pull out his best performance so will be one to watch. We all still keep in touch so it will be good to see him again”.
Beverley could welcome back a few players but are also offset by the fact that 2 players will be unavailable due to Yorkshire U20 selection, Louis Starbuck and Joe Fell (Stu Nel unavailable due to injury).
Beverley selected from: K Renwick, J Bunn, A Ogilvie, M Adams, G Sayer, A McPeake, J McKay, G Jenny, S Jenny, A Maka,D Hodgson, I Archibald, P Duboulay, M Harling, J Tupai, R Bussey, S Atiola, M Kilgannon, A Smith, T Shires
