Rugby Union round-up: Sheffield Tigers '˜need to remember how to win' says boss Thiu Barnard

They will hope to continue their dominance at the top of the league when they host mid-table Towcestrians on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Sheffield Tigers suffered an agonising third straight defeat in their first season back in the National League Two North.

The 32-21 defeat, away to Preston Grasshoppers, leaves the Dore Moor side 12th in the table - only six points ahead of last place.

Regarding the game, Tigers’ head coach Thiu Barnard said: “We were very good for the first ten minutes and we took the lead but then some penalties went against us and Preston found a way back into the game.

“I’m disappointed with the loss, the previous two defeats have felt like the results could have gone either way. This defeat feels like we left too many points out on the pitch.

“It is very frustrating at the minute but we know we have to be patient and the result will come.

“We have not got major issues we need to fix, we just have a few personal issues to sort out.

“Some of the players need to take more responsibility for what they are doing and when we have the processes right then we will start winning.

“We need to fix our breakdown, I thought we were very poor with that against Preston and we need to sort that if we want to start winning.

“Everyone needs to start thinking on their feet. It will take time to learn, especially with us being in a higher division than we were last year.”

The Tigers will hope to reverse their form when they host mid-table Otley on Saturday.

Barnard added: “We, as a unit, have not spoken about the game yet. We know that sooner or later we are going to have to start winning again.

“This week we are going to just focus on ourselves and improve certain areas of our game.

“Then hopefully at the weekend we can step onto the pitch and play the way we want to play.

“Everyone is so caught up winning and the pressure of winning that we have forgot how to actually win.

“You have to do certain things right before you start to win. If everyone does their individual role better than they have done in the past couple of weeks, we will be far better overall as a team.”