Selection poser for Benson

Roughyeds boss Tony Benson is bracing himself for tough selection decisions in the build-up to next Monday’s game at Doncaster.

He rested Mark Brocklehurst, Jason Boults and Ben Heaton against Gateshead Thunder and their replacements John Gillam, Luke Sutton and Ian Hodson all showed up well in the 64-10 romp.

Kashley Watkins, who has still to play a competitive game for Roughyeds after breaking a wrist in a pre-season friendly at Batley, is also keen to pick up where he let off although he will probably be asked to have his second reserve-team run at York on Thursday night.

On the down side Marcus St Hilaire (shoulder), Paul O’Connor (shoulder) and Dave Ellison (knee) picked up knocks against Thunder.

“I don’t think there is anything too serious with them,” said Benson. “The nine-day turnaround before Doncaster will help us to get them fit in time and enable us to do a lot of work on structures and plays.

“I gave Jason Boults a rest on Saturday because we have five or six good props and I want to have as many of them as possible all fit and ready to go at any given time. That’s what the squad is all about.

“Whichever way I look at it, I will have to make some tough selection decisions this week. I won’t be the most popular man in the Roughyeds camp, but it’s something I have to do — it’s the nature of the job.”

Benson’s boys will go to Doncaster seeking to extend their Co-operative Championship One winning streak to seven games.

Talking after the defeat of Gateshead, he said: “It was important we stopped conceding penalties. We were done five times in the first half but we then set ourselves a target of no more than two in the second 40 and we achieved that.

“We got a bit giddy in the first half because we found holes everywhere, but we improved in the second half, did what we had prepared to do, and reaped the benefit.

“It was good to see the backs running in tries, but it was essentially a team triumph. We must not fall into the trap of only praising the backs when it is the forwards who set them up to play as they do.”