Pirates host Wauchope Thunder in a match that looks a forgeone conclusion, but coach Nigel Hurlston is trying to keep his players minds on the job.

The Thunder are winless in their opening three games, scoring just 14 points and conceding 235.

In contrast Pirates sit mid-table with two wins and two losses scoring almost as many points as they’ve conceded.

Hurlston, however, said the task for his players was on continuing their good run of recent form where they defeated Kempsey 62-41 in last weekend’s high-scoring shoot out.

“On paper it is,” he said when asked if the match appeared as a mismatch.

“We don’t know too much about them and the only thing I’ve really looked at is the table – and that tells us they’ve had three losses in three games.”

He said he needed to ensure his players stuck to the structure that had yielded two wins and could have resulted in at least one more.

“At the end of the day it’s still 15 on 15 and we all have a job to do,” he said.

“I try to look at each team the same and give them the equal amount of respect because when you don’t, that’s when you get in trouble.

“As coach, I give a team like Wauchope the same respect as I will when we play Hastings Valley next weekend.

“We’ve got to keep everyone’s head on the same page.”

He admitted it could be difficult for his players to do the same, especially with Rhys Martin, Tim Williams and Jacob Law all set to return.

They missed last week’s win.

“I know as a player you would look at a few fixtures on the calendar and think you can take it a bit easier, but as a coach you can’t do that,” he said.

“A game like this can be as tricky as you want it to be.”

After finishing two of their four matches without a full compliment of players on the field, the focus for Pirates was trying to achieve that against Wauchope.

Hurlston, however, stopped short of admitting his team had a problem with their discipline.

“I wouldn’t look at our team and say they’re a dirty team; we had a guy red-carded last week because of a tackle that hit the ball first,” he said.

“I don’t know how many other teams have had red cards as well, but if it’s just us, maybe we need to look at it.

“I’m all for player safety, but accidents happen in rugby.”

First grade kicks off on Saturday from around 3pm at Stuart Park.