Bridgend born, experienced forward Ben Evans is relishing the end of season run-in, and believes that North Wales Crusaders can make a late surge into the League One playoffs.
Reflecting on last weekend’s victory in Workington, the 32-year-old Welsh international said: “It was a very long bus journey and you’re playing in front of a very animated, loyal fan base, who just love their rugby league.
“In the first 25 minutes, Workington threw the kitchen sink at us, which we expected, and with the crowd on your back, we just had to try and block it out and concentrate on our own game.”
Evans started the come back when the veteran scored a try in the first-half after North Wales Crusaders found themselves 22-0 down: “It was a bit of a shock really, it wasn’t a good start at all, we conceded quite a few points in the first 20-30 minutes, but I think the red card changed the dynamics of the game for us, once we got some momentum, things started to go our way and we started scoring points, I’ve never been in a game like that, it was really weird.
“It was a good effort from the boys, do or die, that’s one game boxed off, we now move our focus to next week and take it game by game and week by week.”
North Wales Crusaders host Keighley Cougars in Chester this Sunday, and Evans believes that the squad can take inspiration from the late form what the 2023 team achieved in making a later surge before reaching the play-off final.
“I don’t think it’s quite do or die this week; as long as we perform well and go into that game and give a full 80 minute performance, you never know what may happen.”
North Wales Crusaders have come up against the Cougars twice already this season, looking at Sunday’s opponents, the former Super League star, who had stints with Warrington Wolves and Bradford Bulls respectively, said: “When we played them away earlier this year, we had a great 40 minutes in the first half, which was uphill which tends to be harder, and we sort of crumbled in the second half, we ran them close in both first halves of the two games we played already, and we’ve shown that we can compete with the best of this league when we faced Oldham.
“There’s been too many games this season where we’ve been amazing for 40 minutes and then we’ve played terribly for 20 minutes, so if we can put a 80 minute performance together on Sunday who knows, we can beat anyone in the league we’ve just got to worry about ourselves and make sure we turn up on the day.”
Tickets for this Sunday’s clash at Hare Lane, Chester, can be purchased at the early-bird price of £10 adults and free for under 16’s.
You can secure your tickets by clicking HERE.
