The new and exciting Roughyeds’ squad will face London Skolars in our first home game of the season at 3.00pm on March 5.
Before that, we make the long journey to Stebonheath Park in Llanelli as we kick-off our League 1 campaign against West Wales Raiders on February 19 (3.00pm).
Stu and the boys will be hoping to get off to a flying start, as we chase promotion to the Championship, against a West Wales side that registered just a single win in 2022 — a 20-0 victory against Cornwall.
Last year, the League 1 season started a month later at the end of March, and head coach Stuart Littler is pleased the season has been brought forward for 2023.
He said:
“In my eyes we had too many gaps in the fixtures last year. It didn’t help for consistency. I like the week to week stuff.
“Obviously there are two bye weekends and there is the Challenge Cup so there are breaks but that’ll give the lads a chance to rest and recover but I’m happy and the earlier start suits us.”
Commenting on our first home fixture, Stu said:
“Skolars are a team that’s getting stronger every year. Joe Mbu (Skolars head coach), I think, did a great job.
“He was in the running for Coach of the Year so that shows what job he has done there. They’re certainly no pushovers.
“We’ll respect everybody and pay them the respect they deserve and make sure we get our preparation right and focus on ourselves.”
There is a tough run of fixtures afterwards as we face last year’s play-off teams North Wales, Rochdale and Doncaster in a back-to-back run of fixtures.
The game against Hornets at home on Good Friday (April 7, 3.00pm) is set to be a cracker with several former players facing off against each other. Rochdale old-boys McNally, Baker and Sheridan will be keen to put on a show, as will ex-Roughyeds Dave Hewitt and Will Cooke who will be wearing Hornets colours.
Stu added:
“We want a positive start to the season this year and hit the ground running and our pre-season is built towards that.
The Good Friday fixture has an increased spice a little bit with some players coming over to us and they’ve signed a couple from us.”
All ten of our home games this season will kick-off on Sundays at 3.00pm — barring the Good Friday fixture and the visit of Cornwall (both 1.00pm kick-offs) — with our home venue soon to be announced.
Yeds fans will want to make note of our reverse fixture against Rochdale Hornets — which will be our last away match of the season — as it will kick off at 1.00pm on August 20.
Another date for the diary is May 21. We will entertain a Dewsbury Rams side that could feature our former players Owen Restall and Jack Coventry.
Our return visit to the Rams’ Tetley’s Stadium will be on Friday June 23 at 7.30pm.
We face recently-relegated Workington Town — now coached by former North Wales boss Anthony Murray — on May 14 away, and July 2 home with both being 3.00pm kick-offs.
The regular season ends on August 27 when we face Midlands Hurricanes at home.
