Hunslet will visit Featherstone Rovers in the fifth round of the Coral Challenge Cup, but Head Coach Gary Thornton expects more from his players than was on display in Sunday’s 22-18 victory at North Wales Crusaders.
The Parksiders prevailed through late tries by Dom Brambani and Anthony `AJ’ Boardman and Thornton admitted: “We weren’t at our best. I was a bit disappointed with our performance, which wasn’t up to the standards we’ve set this year.
“We didn’t execute too well and our halfbacks, Dom Brambani and Simon Brown, weren’t great. It’s always difficult at North Wales, they’re a decent side and their ground isn’t the widest, which doesn’t suit our style.
“The loss of Boardman to the sin-bin in the first half was significant, we let a couple of soft tries in down that flank while he was off, which I wasn’t happy about. But what I am pleased about is that we were able to fix it up. We were more direct in the second half and we found a way to win, making the most of a home sin-binning.
They say it’s a mark of a good side to `win ugly’, which is what we did. It was `job done’ and we’re in the fifth round.”
He continued: “We’ve no injuries from the game and we’ll be looking this week at how Ben Heaton (back), and Matty Chrimes and Kiedan Hartley (both rolled ankles), who had been ruled out for North Wales, are progressing this week.
“We’ve been given a good draw against Featherstone and while I’d obviously have preferred to have been at home, it will be a good test for us. If we have aspirations to get promotion to the Championship, which we do, then this will be a good pointer as to where we are at the moment after we pushed Halifax all the way last year.
“But we’ll not be focusing on the Featherstone game until we’ve got our first two games in Betfred League 1, which is our top priority, out of the way. We’re at West Wales Raiders on Sunday, and at home to a North Wales side that will be eager for revenge seven days later, and we can’t afford any slip-ups.”
