The Severn Stars host Surrey Storm at the University of Worcester Arena tomorrow evening in what could turn out to be a vitally important fifth game in this 2018 Super League season. Stars head coach Samantha Bird has been pleased with the team’s performances so far, despite the lack of results, but realises how important this game could turn out to be.
“It’s obviously massive for us, Bird said, “if we’d scored two extra goals in those two games we’d have six points and we don’t we have zero.
“This is a game we feel confident about performing well in and if we can replicate the performances we put out against bath and Manchester when we lost by one goal in each game then we should be able to perform really strongly against Storm tomorrow.”
As for their opponents, Surrey Storm, they haven’t had the best of starts either, stuck on zero points and a place behind Stars in 9th. However, Bird recognises it won’t be easy to get off the mark this season.
She said: “Storm have had a challenging start as well.
“I think they will just be a calm team and just keep plugging away at the game the whole way through.
“I wouldn’t say they’ve necessarily got any superstars but they’ll link in well as a team.
“I think we can just expect them to just challenge everything we do for the whole hour as you would expect from all Super League teams.”
As with any of these teams, Storm have their strengths that the Stars will have to be wary of, but Bird believes it’s more important for her players to focus on their game and the result should come.
She said: “They’ve got a really strong goalkeeper at the back in Jo trip and she’ll lead from the back.
“Really, truly we’re just looking at what we can do and putting out the performance we know we can put out and we’re not too worried about any particular individuals they have.”
Surrey aren’t the only Storm that could be cause for concern this week. Storm Emma or “the beast from the east” has swept across the UK over the last couple of days but fortunately for the Stars this hasn’t affected game preparations.
Bird said: “We front load our week we train Tuesday and Wednesday so we’re pretty much coming to camp every Tuesday and Wednesday with the players staying overnight together.
“We’ve trained well this week, with some really good sessions and the players just train locally on the Thursday so that hasn’t interrupted our preparations at all.”
As for the game itself, given that it is an indoor sport, it will take place as scheduled. Despite this, Bird is very appreciative of the work the people at the University of Worcester have been putting in over the last couple of days to make sure that the venue is accessible for tomorrow.
She said: “The Arena staff have been fantastic in making sure the arena is ok and ready to host the game tomorrow.
“It’s been really good preparation and planning leading up to tomorrow.”
#StarsFamily even with the adverse weather conditions the game will be on!
We have been working on the @universityarena all week to ensure that it will be safe for Saturday’s game.
Please allow more time to travel with road works on New Road.
Tickets @ https://t.co/u3yjoE3bvS pic.twitter.com/CpTRqtWUsF
— Severn Stars VNSL (@SevernStars) March 1, 2018
