Leeds Tykes warned of potential pitfalls at Bury St Edmunds
LEEDS TYKES director of rugby Pete Seabourne has warned that today’s opponents Bury St Edmunds must not be taken lightly despite their lowly position in the National One table.
Fourth-placed Tykes make the long trip to Suffolk looking to maintain their excellent start to the season but Seabourne their opponents are beginning to acclimatise to life in National One.
“We’ve watched a couple of their games back and they’re very efficient in what they do,” said Seabourne.
“They’re probably going through what we went through last year, trying to adjust to the different pace, strategies and tactics of National One.
“They’ve got some really good individual players and you can see in spells of games that they put some really good stuff together.
“Once they start putting more consistent performances together, they’re going to cause teams problems.
“If we’re not prepared and ready for them, they could cause us problems and we could end up on the wrong side of the result, which obviously we don’t want.”
Seabourne knows the danger of the Bury set-piece and knows that they’ll have to manage that well to win the game.
“We need to get our set-piece right because theirs is quite good,” he added. “The set-piece is important and, if we get it right, hopefully the forwards can create a platform for the backs to get some good ball and score some decent tries, as we have been doing.
“Teams are looking at us now and they know we’ve got a good backline, but if we’re starved of possession, we’re going to struggle.”
Tykes are on a good run of form at the moment, having won their last four games, their last defeat coming against Sale at the start of October, 11 points off unbeaten leader Plymouth Albion. However, Seabourne insists that they aren’t looking at the table, instead they are focusing on their own goals.
“We’re in week three of a four-week block, and the players have set their own targets, so it’s down to them to keep us moving forward,” he said.
“Come the end of the season, we’ll see where we finish.
“Our first target is to stay clear of the bottom three or four, which at the moment we are, but two or three defeats could easily drag us back down, so we’re concentrating on our own performances.”
Sheffield RUFC look to bounce back from a dispiriting defeat to Dings Crusaders when they visit Bishop’s Stortford.
Anthony Posa’s side are second bottom in National One.