Kingstone Press Championship Preview: Hunslet Hawks v Batley Bulldogs

Although Hunslet lost to Featherstone Rovers on Monday, coach Barry Eaton took lots of positives from the match.

“Featherstone knew they were in a game, we pushed them all the way,” he said. “But there are lots of things we still need to work on.

“We know it’s going to be a tough year but we’ve got to get back up against Batley. They put in a very dominant display (against Workington), and will be fancying themselves to be up their challenging for that top four.”

Eaton is hoping he’ll to be able to select from a full strength squad.

Batley coach John Kear said: “Our first performance was very satisfactory and the result was very pleasing but there’s no doubt we need to improve further. I went to Wakefield on Monday to watch Hunslet play Featherstone and was very impressed with what I saw.

“We’ve got improvements in us and we need to make them, especially away to Hunslet who looked very hungry and if they want to compete in this division.”

Kear says he’s still a lot to find out about his squad so there may be some changes from last week’s team as he looks to rotate players this week.