Grady hoping for Cup improvement from Scorpions

South Wales Scorpions coach Mike Grady was disappointed that his team were nilled by Rochdale Hornets in the League One Cup at the weekend.

Nevertheless, he is hoping that they can find some form when they welcome fellow League One outfit York City Knights to Mountain Ash RFC in the third round of the Challenge Cup on Sunday.

“It’s good to play against the tough teams. It gives the lads a taste of what the division is going to be like,” said Grady.

“York finished top of the table last year and were unfortunate to lose in the play-offs and not go up.

“This will be the second long trip in a row for them but they won well down in London last Sunday. We’ll have to make sure we’re at our best to take them on. We’ll look after ourselves and we won’t be far off.”

Rochdale inflicted a 40-0 hiding on the Scorpions last weekend, but Grady was pleased that his players maintained their spirit, particularly as injuries hit the group hard.

“I’m made up with the boy’s efforts,” he said.

“We were carrying an injured player on the bench so we only had 16 men to use.

“They were scoring on the back of our mistakes and a lot came down to our errors but we’ll get that sorted before next week.

“I would have liked us to have scored a try but it was what it was and we’ll get on with it.

“There were plenty of positives to take from the game.

“We had a number of debutants including players who have stepped up from the community game and a number of academy players, all of them handled the occasion very well and showed that they have a good future in the game.

“We did go into the game with a number of injuries and unavailability in the squad.

“So this week and going forward there will be competition for places which can only be a good thing come game day as boys will want to keep their shirt.

“We will By the time the league season starts in April, I hope we’ll be at virtually full strength.”