Team Northumbria host Loughborough under the lights of Kingston Park this Friday and rugby coach Darren Fearn spoke of his side’s character during preparations for a tough fixture.
Last week TN came agonisingly close to upsetting last season’s runners-up, Exeter, in a thrilling 103 point encounter.
And Fearn feels positive about the direction in which his team is going but also stressed that his players must front up defensively against the East Midlanders.
“Coming away from Exeter, I think there was a sense that we achieved something,” said Fearn. “Obviously, we’d rather have had the win but there’s definitely positives we can take into the Loughborough game.
“In terms of picking the boys up we’ve talked about what we did well and what we need to work on.
“We’ve got a good bunch of lads all focused on the future and who are raring to bounce back.
“When you put 50 points on Exeter there’s a chance that the lads could get carried away but they have stayed focused.
“We addressed our defence on Monday and will do so again leading up to the game. For me, it’s just fine details.
“The effort is certainly there but a lot of the backline from last year are playing in a lot of different positions. We need to keep doing some fine tuning to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Fearn was clear that his side must be prepared for what Loughborough will throw at them on Friday.
“We’ve been looking at the Loughborough team and we think it’ll be the side that’s been playing National One rugby this season which is an incredibly high standard,” he added.
“They’ve picked up a few results and they’ll be a good test for the boys to see where we’re at.
“It’ll be a tough game but if we fire on all cylinders we can come away with a good performance.
“We’ve got a really good set of players who have a great attitude who all want to improve so hopefully we’ll get a better result on Friday night.”
Kick-off is 7pm at Kingston Park. Follow @teamnorthumbria on Twitter for in-game updates.
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