Howells

As Knights’ Director of Rugby Lynn Howells prepares for the toughest of the pair of pre season contests his thoughts must go to how he keeps the front row fresh. The 7.30pm kick off at Castle Park will be a traditional 2x 40 minute half affair and two players yet to play a game at Castle Park will have key roles.

With the experienced duo of Michael Cusack and Stuart Corsar missing the game while recovering from injuries Shane Cahill and Dan Frazier will be given the opportunity to win over the fans alongside fan favourite Lewis Thiede.

With only 3 props available to face the Aviva Premiership club Howells will once more need to think outside the box to keep things competitive.

Thankfully the wily Welshman has nothing like the catalogue of injury problems which led to the toughest of starts for the remaining fit players last year, and has plenty of fit players away from the front row to mount a competitive attack and defence. A shift to a more fluid, entertaining style of Rugby has been observed in training and during the 55 - 0 defeat of Otley last weekend, a style Howells intends to put in front of the fans this Friday evening. A willingness to move the ball quickly and take advantage of the pace and guile in the squad proved too much for the National One side, but everyone knows that Leeds Carnegie are a whole different proposition.

"It is important that we not only try to win games during the season but that we also look to entertain the supporters.” Howells said “ We wont get the space and time against Leeds Carnegie we did last weekend but we intend to compete”.

Howells continued "We have worked hard on the skills during close season and hopefully it will pay off. We certainly want to play a bit of rugby this season rather than having to play the grinding out results game we were forced into last season due to injuries.”

Last seasons Championship top points scorer Tristan Roberts looks to debut in front of the home fans, as well as the much talked about Barnardo’s sponsored first team shirt.

Referee for the game is Darren Gamage, assisted by Matt Daubney and Steve Savage and assessed by Allan MacGregor