Roughyeds are on their guard

Tony Benson: Taking nothing for granted when the Roughyeds take on Blackwood Bulldogs.

TONY BENSON refuses to take Blackwood Bulldogs lightly when they visit Sedgley Park RUFC on Sunday (3pm kick-off).

The Roughyeds coach is set to field a no-nonsense line-up as he bids to reach round four of the Carnegie Challenge Cup by finding a way past Welsh amateur outfit Blackwood Bulldogs.

The Caerphilly-based club, who play in the Welsh Premier division of the Rugby League Conference, were only founded four years ago but have enjoyed success since.

The first non-professional side from Wales to reach this stage for 10 years, they did so by defeating Edinburgh Eagles 28-16 — a match that entailed an 800-mile round trip.

The Bulldogs’ fortunes in the competition are being followed by a BBC camera crew and Sunday’s tie will feature on the Super League Show.

Benson is guarding against an upset by using the bulk of the squad which impressively saw off Swinton Lions 38-20 in the opening game of the new Co-operative Championship One season last weekend.

“All I really know about them is that they beat Edinburgh in the last round to get here and last season won their competition,” Benson said.

“To do so they had to get in front of (five-time Welsh Premier champions) Bridgend Blue Bulls, who I know aren’t a bad side at all.

“In order to give the competition the respect it deserves and to give Blackwood Bulldogs the respect they deserve, we will be putting out pretty much our first-choice team.”

Blackwood chairman Andrew Smith is certainly excited about the game, which he sees as laying down another marker for the sport in Wales.

“It is quite a challenge for us and the fact that we have reached the third round of a very important competition is the talk of the club, which is mainly rugby union,” Smith said.

“This is a big game in terms of the development of rugby league in South Wales.

“So in a sense, whatever the result, we can’t lose.”

Blackwood full-back David James scored a hat-trick of tries against Edinburgh and has been training with new Neath-based Co-operative Championship One side South Wales Scorpions, with whom he will commence playing once Blackwood’s Cup run ends.

“It will be a really good experience to go up against Oldham this Sunday,” James said.

“We’re fielding more or less the same team as in the earlier rounds so we know that we can do a good job.

“It’ll also be good for me to see how Oldham play as hopefully I’ll be facing them again twice more this year when the Scorpions play them.”