Betts previews Women’s Derby
- Denis Betts previews Friday’s Women’s Derby against St Helens.
- Betts: “It’s a great challenge this week against St Helens on a great ground and what promises to be a fantastic night.”
- You can listen live to Friday’s Derby Match on Listen Live from 5pm – follow THIS link on the night.
Women’s Head Coach Denis Betts has previewed Friday’s Betfred Super League Round 5 clash against St Helens at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
Reflecting on last weekend’s victory over Warrington which sees the Warriors remain top of the Betfred Women’s Super League pile after four rounds, Betts said: “We’re pleased with the result. They were a very physical side but I thought we handled their physicality, we did make things a little bit hard for ourselves with our completion rate which was quite low but we scored some great tries, some good individual performances and it was just good to get back to winning ways after the Challenge Cup Semi-Final.”
On playing at the Totally Wicked Stadium again, he said: “These fixtures seem to be coming thick and fast and it’s what we’ve been working towards in the sport.
“The obvious three of Leeds, York and St Helens are our main targets. It’s a great challenge this week against St Helens on a great ground and what promises to be a fantastic night, hopefully we can really put a marker down and be competitive again and show that we’re continuing to improve.”
Looking at their opposition, St Helens he added: “They’re leading into a Challenge Cup Final so they may put out their best team and set their standards for the following week or they could have one eye on the final and rest a few bodies – but out priority has got to be about us. We’re doing some really good things as a group, so we’ve just got to tie those things together and get some consistency across the 80 minutes.
“We’re driving the majority of what we need to do and with the standard of opponent we’re coming up against our commitment and our focus has got to be bang on.”
Betts also added some positive updates on injuries in his squad: “We’re hoping that Molly Jones and Eva Hunter could be back in contention soon and we’ve had some positive news on Grace Banks as well. All of the girls are in a good place, it’s just a little bit too soon this week but with the break for the Challenge Cup Final it gives us that little bit of extra time to assess the girls and see how we are ahead of our next game away at Barrow.”
