Published Date:
31 December 2008
DARYL Powell will focus on craft not graft for the remainder of Featherstone's off-season, he said yesterday.
The Rovers boss plans to fine-tune Featherstone's attack in the run-up to his side's next hit-out - the friendly against Doncaster Dragons on Sunday, January 25.
Powell was speaking in the wake of a 'pleasing' Boxing Day success over Halifax at the Chris Moyles Stadium.
"We really need to get detailed with the way we're going to play," he said yesterday.
"I was pretty pleased with the way things stuck in terms of what we'd practised. It showed against Halifax we have a good foundation. Halifax brought a competitive squad. It was a challenging game and I thought the players' application to the skills and structure we've worked on was pretty good.
"Now it's a matter of building on it and growing our ability to deal with different situations.
"I've changed every single call. For a group of players to pick up a whole new list of calls takes some doing and that was the most impressive and pleasing thing about Boxing day."
Tommy Saxton was the only injury worry, the former Castleford and Hull FC utility picked up a knee injury and will be assessed in training this week.
But Powell does not expect the problem to be long-term and Saxton is expected to be on board for the clash with Doncaster when Rovers should also have Richard Blakeway, Jamie Field, Tommy Haughey, Tony Tonks and Steve Dooler pushing for a start.
"Halifax had a few guys missing, similar to us, and I think Boxing Day showed we've got decent strength in depth. With the players we've got still to come back in, it was pleasing to go as well as we did," said the Rovers coach, who singled out full-back Stuart Kain, centres Tommy Saxton and Ian Hardman and winger Waine Pryce for special praise.
"I've always said the full-back spot is going to be a competitive one.
"I thought Stuart Kain was excellent and both Tommy and Ian played well in the centres.
"Waine Pryce got good service from Hardman and took his tries well."
Meanwhile, Powell is warning his players not to read too much into his squad number selections.
"They mean something to the players because they want to be viewed as being one of the top players at the club but ultimately, on a week-to-week basis, they don't mean anything.
"Danny Evans is doing a great job with the reserve grade - I thought Matty Handforth was pretty good the other day - and I'd expect some of them to be putting their hands up.
"If a player is playing well, he'll get an opportunity to prove himself because competition for places is paramount."
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Last Updated:
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Source:
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Location:
Pontefract & Castleford