Confidence will be high in the Ludlow camp as they look to make a winning start to the new year in rugby’s Midlands Three West (North) when they entertain lowly Wolverhampton tomorrow.
The Linney side hit the points trail over the festive period, with a 41-7 friendly win over Tenbury followed by last Saturday’s 64-0 North Midlands Shield romp against local rivals Bishop’s Castle.
And skipper Jake Parkes believes those two performances will put his mid-table side in good heart for the home meeting against Wolverhampton.
“In the last two games we scored over 100 points which will boost our confidence,” he said. “We played some good rugby and scored some good tries and we’re looking forward to taking that into the league.
“We’ve got Wolverhampton tomorrow, a free weekend next Saturday, then Stourbridge the week after.
“They are two of the bottom three sides and we’ll be looking to get four points from those games.”
Chris Condliffe and Matt Ferguson are both missing tomorrow against a Wolverhampton side lying third bottom. The Linney pitch will need an early morning inspection following the recent icy spell.
Ludlow did beat the weather last Saturday as they looked in good form to ease into the quarter-finals of the North Midlands Shield with a 64-0 hammering of Bishop’s Castle.
And the Linney men even had the luxury of finishing the game 10 minutes early with the result already finalised on the freezing pitch. “It was a good work-out for us – and a good confidence booster as well because we haven’t been scoring many tries in the league recently,” said Parkes. “The league is over for us already really, so it would be nice to have some success in the cup.”
Ludlow were without Tom Rawlings, Theo Hodnett, Condliffe and Will Sparrow but turned up the heat on Castle, who have now lost 10 on the spin.
Midlands Four West (North) side Castle held their own in the opening exchanges, but some slack tackling during the final five minutes of the first half allowed Ludlow to run in three tries and enter the changing rooms with a big advantage.
There were two scores each for Joe Doyle, Gareth Edwards and Will Green and 19 points for kicker Gareth Parker as the hosts romped home.
But, despite the commanding scoreline, there were words of encouragement for Castle from the higher league outfit.
Parkes added: “It was very comfortable in the end, but to be fair they never stopped fighting and came to have a go.
“They have some young lads so I’m sure that they will be a good team in a few years.”
Bishop’s Castle spokesman Nick Howells said: “We showed in places that we could match Ludlow with some good steals and some good rugby, but it was a bit of a thumping in the end. The scoreline didn’t reflect the game but it was obvious that there was a league between us.”
No 8 Andrew Dale was the pick of the bunch for the visitors, whose attentions turn to a must-win league clash against fellow strugglers Leek. See page 47 of the South Shropshire Journal on sale now.