Lancashire boss looks to continue winning habit against Roses rivals
Lancashire may have beaten Yorkshire 38-18 in their rugby union County Championship clash at Fylde – but don’t tell head coach Alex Loney they can afford to ease off in Saturday’s second leg.
The Roses rivals meet again at Hull Ionians (3pm), where a defeat by fewer than 20 points would send Lancashire through to next month’s Twickenham final.
However, victory is the only thing on the mind of Fylde team boss Loney.
He said: “If you go into a game trying not to lose badly, you are not setting yourselves up well.
“We want to carry momentum into the next game, and hopefully into the final, by performing better than last week.
“We did concede a relatively soft try at the end and we missed a couple of chances ourselves, but we didn’t make the aggregate score a factor and it won’t come into our planning for the second leg either.”
After a tight first half at the Woodlands last weekend, Lancashire pulled clear in the second with three converted tries before Yorkshire’s late score.
“The first game is one you want to win and we did put some good bits of play together,” added Loney.
“They made us dig in and defend at times, and fight for momentum, but we scored some nice tries and overall we’re pretty happy.
“You can’t get carried away because it’s only the first outing.
“In the first half we conceded a few penalties and gave them easy entry into our 22 at times, which is one area we can improve.”
Leo Gilliland scored the first of Lancashire’s six tries and was one of seven Fylde players in the starting XV, with two more on the bench.
While a core of his ‘home’ players was never going to hurt Lancashire, Loney argues it wasn’t key to their success.
“I think it’s about the way we trained over the sessions and how the squad has come together,” he said. “We will need the whole squad to take us forward.
“There will be a couple of changes this weekend but the squad will be largely the same.
“We’re excited by the team that will take the field and all we can do is prepare well and aim to perform as well as possible with the right mentality.”