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Cooks in the mix

9/ 2/2005

THE ROUGHYEDS' Cooks are ready to turn up the heat when the Northern Rail Cup campaign kicks off against Blackpool Panthers at Boundary Park on Sunday.

After a near three-month wait, the club's new trio of Cook Island forwards - Tere Glassie, Carlos Mataora and Jonathan Wilson - have finally arrived and boss Gary Mercer is prepared to pitch them straight into the mix.

"Their arrival has given everybody a lift," Mercer said. "We've been lacking power upfront and these guys will give that to us now.

"They've had a few days to recover from their flights and have been training for the last three months under Kevin Iro who has kept them in good shape. I have absolutely no qualms about putting them in."

And Mercer - who declares himself "hugely excited" about the challenge ahead - is unequivocal about his target for the competition: he wants to win it.

"I've never entered anything without trying to win and we'll be treating this competition seriously," he said.

"We're a new side and we need to use this competition to gel and build our morale ahead of the league campaign.

"To be honest, looking at our group, I'd be very disappointed if we didn't get through."

The Roughyeds will also play Rochdale Hornets and Swinton in the NRC round-robin stages.

Mercer will be without Adam Sharples (knee) on Sunday but expects to have Simon Haughton (calf), Nick Johnson (neck), Andy Isherwood (shoulder) and Alex Wilkinson (ankle) available.