Skolars player and community coach Neil Thorman takes a look back at a frustrating week for the team and looks forward to Skolars season finally getting  under way:

” The Northern Rail Cup fixtures have finally arrived. Unfortunately our game against Toulouse was postponed due to snow. We did try and clear the snow. Joe Mbu, myself, community coach Graeme ‘radio sensation’ Spencer, Community Manager Paul ‘the governor’ Thorman, and General Manager Howard Kramer all chipped in and tried to clear the snow  but it was to no avail as it snowed again on Thursday night, which then saw the RFL give the word to postpone the game until it can be rearranged. A lot of the players are hoping for it to be played away but Toulouse have already had to cancel two of their recent  games, due to bad weather, and the temperature in France has been colder than here with it being -13c.

My snow clearing efforts included aiming a sizeable amount at Paul Thorman!

With the snowy weather (hopefully) behind us, we are able to look forward to playing some competitive rugby league again. Our next game will be played against Batley Bulldogs on Sunday, KO 2.30pm at Mount Pleasant.  Batley came out of their first NRC game victorious, closely beating Keighley Cougars 22-16. This will give them confidence and a little bit of form leading into the game but we have trained well and have been prepared to play competitive rugby for the past two weeks now. Speaking on behalf of the players  we are all up for the game, and looking forward to the season ahead. Our NRC games are to get us where we want to be when we start the league season. This week Joe sat us down and gave us some home truths about ourselves and him as a coach. This has only brought the team closer together and stronger.”

Pre-game thought (of a forward):

“If we are great offensively, we’ll usually win. If we are great defensively, we’ll never lose.”