Eaton is not counting his chickens (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Eaton is not counting his chickens

4:05pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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Keighley Cougars’ head coach Barry Eaton will take nothing for granted when his team entertain London Skolars for the first this season on Sunday (3pm).

The Skolars are second from bottom of Co-operative Championship One with just one win – at Workington Town – and have just parted company with coach Callum Irving.

Eaton said: “The Skolars are an unknown quantity for us but I’m hoping to see a dvd of their defeat by Dewsbury Rams.

“But, to be fair, even that might not count for anything given the assistance they are receiving from Harlequins RL.”

The Cougar boss was referring to the deal between Skolars and their Super League rivals Harlequins to allow the Championship One side to use some players who are not gaining much game-time in Super League.

Eaton said: “Against the Rams, they played Joe Mbu at prop and he’s got loads of Super League experience. We just don’t know who we’ll be playing against.

“We’ll just be concentrating on our own performance. We’ve enough to do on that alone without worrying too much about who Skolars will include.”

Eaton conceded his team have not strung a quality 80-minute performance together for a number of weeks, even though they have kept a top-four place.

“We’re striving to improve our consistency,” he said. “But, apart from Dewsbury, all the other clubs are capable of beating each other.

“Sometimes it looks as though your team isn’t playing well when in reality it’s because they’re under so much pressure from the opposition.”

Eaton has identified Skolars’ Paul Thorman, brother of Hull FC’s Chris Thorman, as a talented half-back, while full back Corey Simms and centre Chad Isles are both serious handfuls.

He admitted: “On paper, we should blow the Skolars away but they proved themselves a dangerous team when they won at Derwent Park so they’ll be getting full respect from us.”

Coming into contention for Cougars will be prop Brendon Rawlins, who was due to land back in Manchester on Wednesday after being granted his work permit late last week.