Free-scoring Raiders warned to tighten up

Raiders put down 55 points to Canterbury’s 31, as Jack Maslen touched down four tries, meaning the Roundstone Lane outfit has scored 158 points on their way to a 100 per cent record in three games so far.

But as much as Miles is pleased with his sides’ attacking fluency he has warned they must tighten things up at the back if they are to achieve their promotion goal.

He said: “I think the most pleasing thing so far, in a weird way, is we have had three very good wins when really, we haven’t played particularly well.

“We have carried on from last year with our attacking play, but in defence we haven’t been tight enough in play and there have been a number of handling errors.

“If you look in the past at teams that have won this league and in fact any league, their error count is low and their points conceded are low. You can’t afford to be sloppy of let teams score lots against you.”

The Raiders squad passed its first depth test on Saturday with Charlie McGowan, Rob Smith and Ben Dudley all missing and Miles said: “They were three good players missing and we still managed to come through which is a massive plus for us to take forward.”

Full report in this week’s Herald and Gazette.