Preview

The North Wales Conference is in full-flow now and round three sees Wrexham Bradley Raiders entertain the Conwy Celts at Bradley Fields in Wrexham.

The Celts have the opportunity to sit at the top of the ladder in the competition with both Prestatyn and Rhyl Panthers, and Dee Valley Dragons having a free weekend. The Raiders however, will be looking to record their first points of the campaign and improve on their miserable-looking points difference.

Last time out Wrexham got thumped by the Dee Valley Dragons and that far from impressed their coach Dave Cottam, “Our last performance was way below the belt we know we can do a lot better. The boys want to put it right this weekend.”

They were also dealt a blow as one of their forwards went down with a nasty injury and Cottom believes this had an effect on his team-mates, “I think the lads were concerned for Steve Richards and it turns out he has done some serious damage and is unlikely to play again this year.”

They have had three training sessions to put the wrongs right for this encounter, but that hasn’t been enough recovery time for Sam Wright and James Clarke, who are both out injured with ankle and knee problems respectively.

Conwy Celts will be heading into this game on the back of being invited to take on the Clive Griffiths’ Wales Students side. They lost that came 84-12 and if the scoreline wasn’t bad enough, they picked up several injuries across the 80 minutes.

Despite that, Ray Caldwell (head coach of the Celts) said, “It was a great honour to be invited to play at the Racecourse Ground against such formidable opposition and it has helped us to identify where we are in the world of rugby league, as well as show us areas where we need to work on to improve our playing ability.”

“It was also a pleasure to be able to help Clive Griffiths prepare his Wales Students team for future high level encounters.” They were simply up against opposition of a different quality on Sunday, but it was a gusty effort and one a team like the Celts should take a lot out of."