It’s the business end of a gruelling season and we reckon success in this sphincter-squeaking, airlocked top seven will all come down to who can keep it together for the big push.
Separated by a point - and just 18 points in points difference - there's not a lot between Hornets and North Wales at all. We fancy the narrow win at The Rock to set a reasonable template for how this game will go. The term 'must win game' has never been more apposite: indeed, this could come down to who blinks first.
Last week, North Wales made hard work of seeing off a combative All Golds.
Missing six first-team regulars through either suspension or injury, they were dealt a further blow when joint top try-scorer Jono Smith snapped his anterior fibula ligament in the warm-up, which has most probably ended his season.
Not really helped by Gary Middlehurst’s yellow-card for a dangerous throw, North Wales were only 10-8 up at the break - and behind 10-14 two minutes after. It needed four tries from Rob Massam in the final half an hour to finally see-off the visitors’ challenge by 38 points to 20
Speaking on Twitter this week, Anthony Murray said, "Through the course of the game, I was confident that we would win and I'm glad that we won in the manner we did, scoring 38 points."
"We grounded out a result today (sic)… we got the two points and it's going to be a big challenge at Rochdale Hornets next weekend."
"We're really up against it at moment - we've lost Jono Smith it looks as though he could be out for considerable amount of time. That takes it to seven injuries and then Mark Hobson's picked up a knee injury. We're literally at the bare bones at the minute."
While Stuart Reardon made a return last week, centre Christian Roets remains doubtful after picking up rib cartilage damage .
Crusaders will also be without Karl Ashall and stand-in captain Steven Wild, both serving the last match of their two-game bans for a grade-C dangerous throw against Barrow last month. You can check out the incident in the video below: judge for yourself whether this is half as serious as Gaz Langley swearing at a touch judge.
Separated by a point - and just 18 points in points difference - there's not a lot between Hornets and North Wales at all. We fancy the narrow win at The Rock to set a reasonable template for how this game will go. The term 'must win game' has never been more apposite: indeed, this could come down to who blinks first.
Last week, North Wales made hard work of seeing off a combative All Golds.
Missing six first-team regulars through either suspension or injury, they were dealt a further blow when joint top try-scorer Jono Smith snapped his anterior fibula ligament in the warm-up, which has most probably ended his season.
Not really helped by Gary Middlehurst’s yellow-card for a dangerous throw, North Wales were only 10-8 up at the break - and behind 10-14 two minutes after. It needed four tries from Rob Massam in the final half an hour to finally see-off the visitors’ challenge by 38 points to 20
Speaking on Twitter this week, Anthony Murray said, "Through the course of the game, I was confident that we would win and I'm glad that we won in the manner we did, scoring 38 points."
"We grounded out a result today (sic)… we got the two points and it's going to be a big challenge at Rochdale Hornets next weekend."
"We're really up against it at moment - we've lost Jono Smith it looks as though he could be out for considerable amount of time. That takes it to seven injuries and then Mark Hobson's picked up a knee injury. We're literally at the bare bones at the minute."
While Stuart Reardon made a return last week, centre Christian Roets remains doubtful after picking up rib cartilage damage .
Crusaders will also be without Karl Ashall and stand-in captain Steven Wild, both serving the last match of their two-game bans for a grade-C dangerous throw against Barrow last month. You can check out the incident in the video below: judge for yourself whether this is half as serious as Gaz Langley swearing at a touch judge.
