USA name team for Wales match USA head coach Terry Matterson has named his 19 man squad to play Wales at Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium on Sunday (14:00) Bureta Faraimo Kristian Freed Michael Garvey Roman Hifo Daniel Howard Judah Lavulo Haveatama Luani David Marando Clint Newton Mark Offendahl Joseph Paulo Matthew Petersen Edward Pettybourne Craig Priestly Tuisegasega Samoa Matthew Shipway Les Soloai Lelauloto Tagaloa Taylor Welch Tomahawks want to chop odds-on champions By Liam Williams Craig Priestly has already set his sights on toppling Rugby League World Cup 2013 tournament favourites Australia in the quarter-finals, ahead of the Tomahawks’ second Group D game against Wales at the Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium, Wrexham, on Sunday (2.00pm). After stunning France in their RLWC2013 warm-up match and then winning their first-ever World Cup fixture against the Cook Islands on Wednesday, Priestly is planning on meeting Australia in the next stage of the tournament, so long as his side can replicate their so-far impressive form. “I think we can progress as far as we want to,” said Priestley. “We have to start by getting a good win over Wales, then if we can replicate that performance against Scotland we will probably be taking on Australia. “If we get that far we would have the chance to pull off one of the greatest upsets in Rugby League history. You never know.” “I thought it was an unbelievable performance against Cook Islands. We dug in deep, as they kept coming back at us, but we were hard and strong and in the end we got the win. “There are little things that we will be looking to improve on though. It will be the same things as Wednesday, but we will try to utilise the kickers a bit more. “We will also work on the defence. They scored a few tries out wide so that is something we will address.” The USA face a short turnaround of just four days between their first and second RLWC2013 games, but Priestly believes it will help the side build momentum. “We don’t get much of a rest but we will be working off the momentum we have built,” he said. “The preparation for the France game was very limited. We only had one training session the night before, so to go out and do what we did was unbelievable. We took so much confidence from those games and I think it showed as we were heading into the Cook Islands game. “Wales will be tough opposition for us. They lost their first game against a strong Italy side so they’ll improve.They have had much more time than us to prepare and I imagine they will have been training hard.” “There is a lot of enthusiasm within the squad though. We have a lot of young guys here, but we have also got the experienced ones who are really helping everyone improve their skills and their bodies. We are still all on a high, but we are also careful to not get ahead of ourselves.”
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:54:48 +0000