Valley Cougars

The Cougars travel to Shaw Cross Sharks in the preliminary round of the Challenge Cup in two weeks and Clark – overseeing his second week of training – has been encouraged by what he has seen so far.

“Since we’ve been back I’ve mainly tried to keep it simple – introduce a few plays and focus on exit strategy,” he said.

“But the boys have picked it up pretty quickly, which shows they have a decent understanding of the game, so the foundations are there to be built on.

“Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be looking to step things up in time for the Challenge Cup game.”

Last season, the Cougars benefitted from a dual-registration arrangement that enabled Scorpions players that were not in the team turn out in the Conference National, and the former Wigan Warriors community coach expects that link to strengthen this season.

“We intend to keep it exactly the same,” he continued.

“The pathway was successful last year if you look at the boys that the Scorpions have taken on board (Phil Carleton and Liam Watton) and the Cougars being competitive gave us a chance to test some boys out who perhaps weren’t playing regular footie.

“Where it may be different this year is that if boys are on the fringes, we may look to give them a block of games where they’ll be involved with the Cougars, and that’ll stop the team being too disrupted and also give the boys a chance to build some form.

“And it’ll work both ways; boys playing well for the Cougars may get the opportunity to enter our setup. It remains a decent resource in terms of recruitment for the Scorpions.”