STU Littler’s men duly knocked over West Wales Raiders 38-0, leading 18-0 at half time and scoring seven tries in total at Llanelli with right-wing Liam Copland and scrum-half David Hewitt each scoring a brace.
Back after injury, ‘Chewy’ also kicked five conversions to amass a personal haul of 18 points.
The other three tries were recorded by right-centre Oliver Field, back-row Jason Muranka on his league debut and in form stand-off Kian Morgan, who was in at half-back for suspended captain Martyn Ridyard.
Following heavy home defeats by Rochdale and Doncaster, it was important for Roughyeds to beat the Raiders and this comprehensive result, albeit against the bottom club in Betfred League One, will have raised the bar and lifted the spirits of players and fans ahead of Sunday’s game against high-flying North Wales Crusaders at the Vestacare Stadium.
A busy weekend of intense activity began on Friday when we announced that we had beaten the transfer deadline to extend the loan deals of Oliver Field (Leeds Rhinos) and Johnny Openshaw (Salford Red Devils) to the end of the season and also to sign on loan four young players from Wigan Warriors — half-back Logan Astley, centre Alex Sutton, prop Jack Bibby and prop Toby Brannan.
It needs to be said that, under new legislation, all loan players can be recalled by their parent clubs at any time to play in their reserve teams without breaching the loan agreement.
Wakefield Trinity recalled Dane Windrow and Robbie Butterworth to play in their reserve team last Saturday. so we had a much-changed team at Llanelli where we were without Connor Carr, Sean Slater, Robbie Butterworth, Luke Nelmes, Dane Windrow and Callum Cameron from the previous game.
Replacing them were Will Cooke, Kian Morgan, Dave Hewitt, James Thornton, Jason Muranka and Ethan Ferry.
All the loan players will be available this Sunday.
