HASTINGS Valley Vikings haven’t had an ideal preparation for Saturday’s clash with Coffs Snappers at Oxley Oval.
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A handful of players were absent from Tuesday night’s training session while another was away due to work commitments.
Andrew West, Sam Flanagan, Corey Lovell and Manu Kipma all had a bout of the flu.
It doesn’t give coach Mark Howard the opportunity to prepare as best as he would like after the team suffered their first loss in more than two years last weekend.
Luckily for Howard, most of the players have been mainstays in first grade for the last couple of seasons.
“There’s a bit of an illness that’s gone through the team, but these blokes have played together for long enough to not let it effect us too much,” Howard said.
Last year’s premiers need to provide a response that last week’s defeat in Coffs Harbour was just a once-off.
Again they will be without Adam McCormack who is on representative duty.
But Howard remains confident last week’s loss won’t be the start of a slippery dip down the Mid-North Coast Rugby Union ladder in coming weeks.
“One loss is one loss … it’s not any cause for panic because we still had our opportunities last week,” he said.
“I am looking for a response from the players because it’s a closer competition than in previous years.
“I’m definitely expecting them to show last week wasn’t any sort of dip in form.”
The Vikings will field a largely unchanged side for the Snappers’ visit with the only possible change to take place in the backline expected to be a battle between Bryce Claef and Ian Edwards for the spot on the wing.
The Snappers match up better than most teams in the competition and Howard expects it to be a battle in the forwards.
“We don’t usually have the luxury of dominance in the forwards when we play them so it’s important for the boys to bounce back,” he said.
“We still want to give this competition a shake.”
First grade kicks off at 3pm with reserves to start at 1.45pm.