Leeds Tykes need mobility to negate Cinderford’s strength

The Gloucester club are the only side still with a 100 per cent winning record intact following six successive victories to start the season.

They have racked up 178 points in the process and scored four try-bonus points while Leeds have just the one success to their name against Bishop’s Stortford last month.

However, Phil Davies’ side – who will benefit from having last weekend off – are growing in confidence and came close to a second victory in their last outing at Sale FC before narrowly losing 21-17.

Second-row forward Brady told The Yorkshire Post: “We know Cinderford have an established way of playing.

“They have an experienced pack, their scrum is really strong and their set-piece is solid.

“They like their driving maul and the teams they have beaten so far have really struggled to deal with that.

“They are a bit old-school in that their front-row has some real heavy blokes in there and that is one of their strengths.

“But strengths there can mean there’s weaknesses in other 
areas.

“Our job is to stay away from their strengths and try to exploit those weaknesses.

“We’ll try and move them around. That’s what we’re thinking and we have some players back as well which should help us do that.

“We’re probably going with the strongest squad we’ve been able to field so far this season.

“It’s a long trip down there – about four and a half hours – but we’re expecting to get something from it and we’re looking forward to it.”

Leeds always knew it would be tough in the third tier after their relegation from the Championship last year and such significant cuts to their budget.

But Brady maintains the youthful side have not lost faith and are growing with each game.

“We should have won against Sale,” he said.

“We were 12 points up just before half-time and ended up losing by four points in the end.

“But it was good to get that first win against Bishop’s Stortford.

“That was great for our self-belief and someone was saying how it was the first win for the club in the league for three years given Covid and, before that, what happened as Yorkshire Carnegie in the Championship.

“We’re looking to build on it now.”