Preview: Stags ready to tackle the Crusaders on the back of morale-boosting win

The Stags got their first points of the season last weekend when they won 30-14 at South Wales Scorpions.

Coach Troy Perkins said: “We had a good look at ourselves last week at training and we needed to improve our defence.

“We conceded three tries, which is a lot different to what we have been doing, that was a massive improvement for us.

“We had a couple of centres on dual-registration from the Broncos and they added a bit of spark in attack that we’d been missing.

“I was pretty happy with the performance; we need to build on that against Crusaders. They will be looking to get back on track against us and they’ve probably pencilled in a result against us, so it’s a really important game for both teams.

“We can take a fair bit of confidence from last week, the win certainly helped us. We’re reasonably healthy so it will be a similar team to the one that played last week.”

North Wales Crusaders, meanwhile, lost 31-24 at home to London Skolars last time out.

Coach Anthony Murray said: “I wasn’t surprised at the result because that would be totally disrespecting London. I knew full well we’d have to be at our best to beat them.

“They’ve started the season really well and won three out of their four league games and are in the semi-finals of the iPro Sport Cup.

“In certain areas we improved from the Doncaster game but in others we didn’t, which let us down again, but the main thing for me was we competed and we were right in the game until the death.

“It doesn’t get any easier this week and I’ve always said that in League 1 anyone is capable of beating anybody.

“Sometimes when teams are competing they’re just not getting the rub of the green or the bounce of the ball and just a little bit of confidence can be lacking.

“Again I’m anticipating a real tough game and am fully aware that if we’re not at our best, then we’ll get beat.”