The Boars are ready to Ruck & Roll

Boars ready to Ruck n roll:

So we have come to the end of our preseason programme and here are the thoughts of DOR Dan Protherough:

“We deliberately took 3 tough games in pre season as we felt that is the best way to prepare for the forthcoming season and it would allow us to test what we have been working on and put the lads under pressure against teams who will or have been competing at a higher level.

One of our big work ons coming into the season was to improve our conditioning and thanks to the combined efforts of Will Harris, Max Cooper and David Tillotson I think we have been very successful in getting the majority of the squad much fitter and stronger than last year. What has been really pleasing to see is the hunger and desire of some players to grow and develop, and certainly players like Joel Rimmel and Tom Cubitt have made great strides.

The great thing for the squad is that in all 3 games we have been very competitive, we have been able to match the physicality of sides in a higher division and generally competed.

As with most teams at this time of year there are things we need to be better at and certainly we need to be more clinical in the red zone as whilst in the last game against Stourbridge we dominated possession and territory but not the scoreboard.

Tied to this is becoming harder to score against. The lads need to show greater urgency to rectify mistakes made and not allow turnovers to become 5 or 7 points on the board.

Overall though we are very pleased with how we have performed as a squad and we go into the season expecting to perform well in both the 1st XV and 2nd XV in the national league structure. Steve Rose has said the same for the 3rd XV and I know Martin Lakeman has been like a man possessed in driving standards with the Crusaders!

Images by Andy Jepson Photography