Scarborough RUFC coach Matty Jones set for pre-season opener at Bridlington

Matty Jones’ side will travel to Dukes Park on Friday August 11 to take on rivals Bridlington before welcoming Wetherby to Silver Royd a week later.

Jones admits that he’s been very impressed with the first couple of weeks of pre-season.

“The first two weeks have been really good, but the numbers haven’t been where we’d like them to be yet.

“The quality has definitely been there, but we know that lads are on holiday at the moment and they have been open and honest about missing training which is all I can ask for.

“I know there’s a few who aren’t too keen on pre-season because we put a lot of metres through the legs but we are hoping, once the pre-season games get going in August, that we can start doing a bit more contact work.”

On the talk of pre-season match action, Jones believes that a busy schedule will help his side to make a strong start to the new North One East season.

“We’ve got the 10’s tournament and the two fixtures and we won’t to try and iron out the cobwebs.

“We’ve got a change of structure this season, so we need to make sure that we hit the ground running ahead of the season starting in September.

“As a group we’ve tried to bring in 10-15 minutes of tackle height work, to lower our levels and get the lads ready for the season.”

The 1st XV open their competitive account with a tough trip to Dronfield on Saturday September 2 before a home tie with Malton & Norton a week later.

They also lock horns with new sides Rochdale and Glossop and Jones says that it’s nice to see a few new teams in the league.

Jones added: “Obviously it’s nice having a few new teams in the league but it’s a shame that they are so far away from us.

“The first game of the season will be a good opportunity to have a bus trip and a social for the lads to get everyone up for the season.

“There’s a couple of new lads that are new to the area and we are just chatting to them at the moment but we’ll see what happens.”