Last updated at 12:12, Saturday, 14 July 2012

Jamie Thackray declared that the Championship One title is Workington Town’s to be lost and then added: “This Championship One rugby is tougher than Super League.”

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The former GB, Hull, Leeds and Crusaders prop, 32, said that he didn’t know what to expect when arriving in west Cumbria at the beginning of the year but was more than pleasantly surprised.

“Having not played at this level, I wasn’t expecting much,” said the Leeds-based star, who will be with Town in 2013 after penning a new 12-month extension to his contract on Thursday night.

“I was expecting Championship One rugby to be a lot easier but it’s tougher than Super League, a lot more physical.

“Saying that, I am having a great time at Town – they are a great set of lads and they are all in it together. It reminds me of my time at Hull – there are no small groups of players, no cliques and I’m loving every minute of it.”

Second-placed Town entertain South Wales at Derwent Park tomorrow (ko 1pm) and mathematically need two wins from their remaining six games to gain promotion.

“We don’t have to rely on any of the other teams,” added Thackray. “If we win our matches, we can win the title.

“When we lost at Barrow earlier in the season, I thought they were hanging on by a thread in the second half.

“And the defeat to Oldham is one to forget. It was the first game of the season and we were shocking.

“We haven’t played to our full ability in the last few games, and still won.

“But if we can regain the form we showed earlier in the season we can win the title.”

South Wales are second-bottom in the table but Thackray added that he and his team-mates won’t be taking them for granted.

“I know their coach Dave Clark from my days at Barrow Raiders and he’s a very good coach,” said Thackray.

“They’ve had some very close results of late and tomorrow’s game is as important at those we have coming up against the likes of Barrow and Doncaster.”

Town trio Karl Olstrum, Jarrad Stack and Dan Rooney, who all missed the 30-20 victory at Crusaders, all hoping to play a part in tomorrow’s game.

Winners of a pair of tickets for tomorrow’s match are: Paul Kenney, Flimby; Fiona Dempster, Kevin Browne, Martyn Deans, Lynda Holliday (all Workington)

First published at 10:51, Saturday, 14 July 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk