REIGNING champions York will head into this season with a clean slate according to coach Lindsay Anfield.
Having gone into last season’s victorious campaign as losing finalists, the former England fullback insists their approach to the new season will be no different, despite having a trophy to defend.
“We’ll treat this season the same as any other,” said Anfield, who quickly identified areas for improvement following the 16-6 Grand Final win over Leeds in October.
“We have shown the girls the video of us winning last year but we’ve said that’s it, they’ve been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Now we have got to start again as we’re back in the mix with everyone else.
“We’re looking at the Grand Final as our bottom mark now, and we have got to push on from that and keep improving in all areas, such as our skill set and athleticism, to make sure that the product on show is as good as we can make it.
“The message has been about improving ourselves, and not focusing on what others are doing.
“So the whole of our pre-season has been based around the things we didn’t feel we did well enough at last season. As well as building on our strengths, we have to improve in certain areas, in particular penalties and errors.
“We made a lot of unforced errors last year and gave away a lot of penalties, especially in the ruck, and with the new rules coming in, we’re going to have to be even sharper in that area. So we’ve needed to tidy that up and make sure that we keep hold of the ball as much as we can.
“It’s about working hard to make sure that the product we put on show is better than last year.”
The Valkyrie begin the defence of their title with a home fixture against St Helens on Sunday in the first game of a double-header at the LNER Community Stadium, which also sees the Knights face Bradford at 3pm.
