Tigers' new challenge (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Tigers' new challenge

4:40pm Wednesday 22nd April 2009

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SEDGLEY Tigers will begin the task of readjusting to third tier rugby union after their swansong in National Division One at Newbury on Saturday.

The club have dropped down to the newly-named Division One, but relegation but is being viewed in a positive light by chief executive Geoff Roberts at Park Lane.

He said: “After five seasons of struggling against full-time sides it will be good to hopefully have success on the field and challenge at the top of the table instead of battling at the bottom.”

“We’ll be aiming to finish top; if we achieve that we’ll look at our options, but our priorities will be to enjoy playing and to compete.

“We’ll still have the ‘derby’ against Manchester and ‘Roses’ games against the likes of Otley, as well as coming up against new opponents like Cambridge and London Scottish who will both fancy their chances next season.”

However, the Tigers finish the season with a trip down to Berkshire to face Newbury in the season’s final fixture (kick-off 3pm).

“We’ll have pretty much a full team to choose from, with the exception of Lisiate Tafa, who is out injured and Tim Fourie. Tim decided he wanted to sign off at home, so the win over Otley was his swansong,” said new head coach, Rich Senior.

“We want to finish on a positive note, so we’ll be getting stuck in, looking to apply ourselves and see what we can achieve; we want to win.”

He was also full of praise for the club’s victorious second team, which retained the Baterman BMW Premier League title last Saturday after beating Lancashire rivals Fylde, 46-17.

“That success is down to hard work on the part of a number of people, notably Rick Urmston, Steve Hazzelby, Paul Morris and Vinny Kirkham, as well as the players of course.

“They had to put good performances in when robbed of numbers by the first team, so they had to raise their game week in, week out, which bodes well for next season.”

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