MICKY Higham says Leigh Centurions' meeting with London Broncos on Sunday is exactly the kind of game players want to be involved in.

Centurions finally got their season underway with a 48-18 win over Oldham and Higham is looking forward to the challenge from the Broncos.

“London have made a decent start with two wins from two and we are looking for a good, solid performance against them,” he said.

“We are doing it tough and injuries are testing our squad strength. Tom Armstrong picked up a hand injury against Oldham and will be out for a few weeks and Andrew Dixon joined the injured list.

“I'm looking forward to the London game; it's always great to play at LSV and games like this, between two evenly matched sides, are the ones that as a player you want to play in.”

Last time out London Broncos trailed Swinton Lions 18-12 at half-time but an improved second-half performance saw them through to a 38-18 victory.

Coach Andrew Henderson said: “I was very, very pleased with the second half. We scored some really good tries and played with some tempo and managed to come over the top of them at the back end of the game.

“We’ve got to go to Leigh with a mentality that we can win and have to prepare accordingly. Leigh are a great side, they had a bit of a blip against Batley but they’re going to get better as the year goes on. It’s the same with our team. It’s early in the season and it’s just about picking up points.

“Leigh is going to be a tough ask for us on the road. We have to be ready and prepare with some intent and purpose this week and hopefully execute on the day and come away with the points.”

Centre Nathan Stapleton picked up a knee injury and is a doubt.

Other Kingstone Press Championship Round 3  previews:

Saturday, February 20:

Whitehaven v Featherstone Rovers (6:30pm)

Looking back on last week’s victory over Batley Bulldogs, Featherstone Rovers coach Jon Sharp said: “I thought it was a really tough, competitive game - both teams did really well. Batley were excellent and followed on from their performance against Leigh. Our mentality was good, we were well-prepared for a battle and they certainly gave it to us.

“It’s a Saturday game up at Whitehaven this week so it’s a quicker turnaround than the players are used to. We’re looking forward to going up there, spending the full day together and playing a night game.”

Forwards Jamie Cording and Colton Roche should both be available this week.

Swinton Lions v Bradford Bulls (7:00):

Swinton Lions coach John Duffy remained positive after his side’s 38-18 defeat at London Broncos: “Our completion rate was good and it was a question of staying with them as long as we could,” he said. “It was only our third hit out, if you include our pre-season game, so we can’t be too downhearted but we can’t keep saying ‘what could have been’. We’ve got to be clinical. We had a couple of opportunities to get back into the game early in the second half but we didn’t quite finish them off.

“We’re just going to keep fighting; we want to be niggling teams and making sure we’re in it for 80 minutes. I think the way we play, especially in attack, we’ll cause some damage at points in the season. We’ve got a big game against Bradford on Saturday.”

Scrum-half Matty Beharrell left the field with an ankle injury against the Broncos but is expected to be fit for Saturday.

Sunday February 21:

Batley Bulldogs v Sheffield Eagles (3:00):

John Kear, the Batley Bulldogs coach, is happy with the way his team have started the season: “I’m pleased with how we’ve played in both games,” he said. “I didn’t think we were quite as focused and intense against Featherstone as we were against Leigh. I measured that by things like the kick-chase, which I felt weren’t of the same standard, although we played well.

“I think there’s still improvements and we’ve identified specific areas that we really need to work on in order to give ourselves a chance of success this week. Sheffield are very good. They play some good Rugby League and are very combative and competitive, so we’ll need to be at our best to challenge them.”

Centre Shaun Squires picked up a medial ligament injury and joins Paddy Hesketh and Sam Scott on the long-term injury list.

A few choice words from coach Mark Aston at half-time galvanised Sheffield Eagles who went on to beat Halifax 26-6 last week. “They had scored a few points the week before so it was always going to be a tough one,” he said. “With the brand of football we like to play and they like to play, something’s got to give. Defence became the priority and both teams were very good in that first half. In the second 40 minutes I thought we went back to plan and were outstanding.”

“Batley have been very good and there’s quite a number of ex-Sheffield Eagles players there, so it’s always interesting when you play against them. To beat Leigh in the first game was an outstanding achievement. I’m not sure it’s going to be vintage rugby this week, I expect it will be quite muddy with the weather like it is.

“We need to make sure we go about our business the way we have done in the last two weeks and come up with a performance.”

Oldham v Dewsbury Rams (3:00):

Newly-promoted Oldham have had a tough start against two full-time teams. Coach Scott Naylor said: “We’re actually playing very well and have been beaten 22-0 and 48-18. With the two performances we’ve put in, we would have probably won most League 1 games, which shows the difference in the divisions “Everything’s different. The players are bigger and more powerful, the skill levels are higher and the games are a lot faster. Technically you’ve got to be switched on for every single tackle. So far the lads have been really good and are enjoying the challenge but they obviously now realise what the season’s going to be like.

“Dewsbury did really well last year, have got a good coach in Glenn and have signed a lot of good players. It will be a very good test for us and it will be interesting to see how the lads feel after the game about the differences playing against a part-time team.”

Naylor is hoping to boost the squad with a couple of new players in the coming weeks.

Dewsbury Rams haven’t quite managed to reproduce their form from last season but they remain unbeaten after their 38-16 win over Workington Town. Coach Glenn Morrison said: “The first half was a little bit like the week before. We went through the motions expecting to get the job done. So I gave them a little bit of a rocket at half-time and told them to step up and play like we should be playing and they did – so there were plenty of positives.

“I’m expecting it to be tough this weekend, Oldham have had two tough games, which I think is going to help them out. These are the tough games, the ones you’ve got to make sure you get up for or you’ll drop the points.”

Jack Teanby will be available this week.

Workington Town v Halifax (3:00):

It was another defeat for Workington Town last week at Dewsbury. Coach Phil Veivers said: “If you don’t get your share of possession you won’t win the ball game and we went 17 minutes where we had the ball once.

“I’ve seen the Halifax game against Sheffield. If they had capitalised on a few of their chances in the first half then it would have been a different ball game. It was a below par performance from them. The way they played last year and in their first game against Whitehaven makes me think that there’s a lot more to come from them. They’ll be trying to rectify what they dished up last week.”

Looking back on that defeat at Sheffield Eagles coach Richard Marshall said: “We missed a few chances in the first half we felt we should have converted and were disappointed. We had seven or eight line breaks and had a couple of chances ruled out, one for a forward pass and one for offside.

“Fair credit to Sheffield, they scrambled well defensively and put us under some pressure, certainly in the second half. But they took their chances, which was the difference between the two teams. That’s something we spoke about and where we need to improve.

“We played Whitehaven up there in our first game last year and did OK and we’ll look forward to this one. We need to right some of the wrongs from the weekend. The conditions are pretty much irrelevant for us, it’s just about things that we need to improve upon this week.”

Centre Sam Smeaton picked up a dead leg but is expected to be fit.