London Broncos v Batley Bulldogs: Former Rhinos team-mates Diskin and Ward to go head to head

Batley boss Matt Diskin packed down alongside Broncos’ Danny Ward in the Leeds Rhinos team which won the 2004 Super League Grand Final.

Diskin is in his second year at Bulldogs, but Ward took over the London hot seat in the closed-season and has a 100 per cent winning record so far.

“He has a full-time squad, which is a luxury, but what he has done is put his mark on it by showing faith in some talented young kids,” Diskin said.

“There’s some real pedigree in their academy, which is good for them and the game and he has been a big part of that.”

London will be “favourites by a long way” to extend their winning run tomorrow, Diskin says, but he reckons Batley can create an upset.

Neither side had a game last weekend and Diskin said: “Every time we have a week off we seem to come up against a full-time team. It’s not ideal, we’d have liked to have a bit of momentum going into it.

“Historically we’ve not got a good record there [on London’s artificial pitch]. It is a fast track, but we’ve addressed that by training on a 4-G pitch to get the boys adjusted. I’ve a good relationship with [Dewsbury Rams coach] Neil Kelly and he’s allowed me a bit of space on their facility, so I’d like to thank him and Dewsbury for that.”