KARL HARRISON heaped praise on flu-battered side after they shrugged off illness to beat York Wasps in their first home game of the season.

"They were absolutely marvellous, no coach could hope for anything more from his team. A bug had swept through the club and 10 of the players really shouldn't have been out there, but their commitment was superb.

"The front row of Phil Stephenson, Steve Hall and Michael Slicker were tremendous. Stevie Hall particularly was very, poorly but their work rate was exceptional," he said.

Harrison himself was not spared by the illness which struck over New Year.

"The trouble is that like any sports team you work very closely together, use the same drinks bottles and bugs spread like wildfire. Hopefully we are now over the worst.

"We trained on Tuesday and although a few were missing with illness it looks like I will have a strong squad to choose from for Sunday's game at Batley."

Prop Alan Boothroyd who was captain of Premiership finalists Dewsbury Rams last season will definitely be in the Harrison's squad to take on the Bulldogs and full back Richard Smith will return after suffering an ankle injury in the club's pre-season fixture. He had a successful match with the A-team on Wednesday and will play despite having six stitches in a gash above his eye.

"It looked pretty bad and was very swollen after the match, but he is not the sort of player to let a black eye keep him out. If he had been I wouldn't have brought him here," Harrison said.

Jason Ramshaw is also back to fitness after a family holiday in Australia over Christmas. He watched last week's match against York from the side-lines, but was on top form for the A-team in midweek.

But the coach said there would few changes to the side which has launched his coaching career with back-to-back victories.

"I have to keep faith with the players who are winning," he said.

Matt Foster will definitely by out of action after suffering ankle ligament damage which could keep him sidelined for two to three weeks.

Harrison also predicted that Sunday's game at Batley's Mount Pleasant ground will be far from easy.

"They have had a tough start to the season against Dewsbury and Doncaster, two quality teams who will be in the shake-up at the end of the season. Batley know it is important for them to kick-start their season, but for us in many ways it is more important to win at Batley than it was to win at Hunslet on the first day of the season.

"Batley certainly won't make things easy for us. It is never easy to win at Mount Pleasant, but this is a very important game for us.

"Fortunately I now have quite a full squad to select from and that is a very nice problem to have as a coach, " he said.

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