Villeneuve Leopards will be out to make amends for last week's shock cup exit when they visit York Wasps tomorrow, writes Dianne Hillaby.

The high-flying Leopards, with just one defeat in 16 division one games, were surprisingly dumped out of their domestic knockout competition, the Lord Derby Cup, by second division Carpentras.

As cup holders it was a bitter pill to swallow but coach Grant Doorey expects it will fire them up for their clash with York.

"We had a shock last week so we will be doing our best to forget that loss and go forward instead of reflecting on what went wrong last week," said the Australian player-coach, who has named himself at prop for tomorrow's game.

"I don't know if the boys had their minds on this game last week but they have been very keen to train this week.

"There's a lot of pressure on the team to get through this round, not because we're expecting to win but because we had a poor result last week and we've only got two competitions left, the English cup and the championship, so we're hoping for the longest cup run possible both from the club's point of view and the players' point of view."

Both coaches are playing up the underdogs tag in what should be an evenly matched encounter.

While York chief Lee Crooks claims many punters are backing Villeneuve to win, Doorey believes York are favourites.

He said: "I wouldn't think we're favourites with York at home. I think we're underdogs and I will be approaching the game as such.

"Week in week out I think the NFP's a stronger league but there are fixtures in the French first division which are equally as competitive."

Looking at the York side, the former Keighley Cougars forward said: "I know a bit about them. I've been keeping a close eye on them in the last few weeks and I spent a bit of time in England so I know a few guys we're up against.

"There are quite a few guys who've had experience at Super League level. The key players for them will be the half-backs (Paddy Handley and Gareth Stephens) and knowing Lee Crooks I'm sure he'll have the pack fired up for the game."

Villeneuve themselves have plenty of experience in their ranks, including several internationals.

Their key player is Freddy Banquet, who is well known in England having had spells with Sheffield, Featherstone and Wakefield.

He has switched from his more familiar three-quarter birth to scrum-half in recent weeks as cover for Julien Rinaldi and David Despin.

First choice Rinaldi is out for the season with cruciate ligament damage while his deputy Despin is serving a six-match suspension.

Also in the side are international stand-off Laurent Frayssinous, New Zealand hooker Vincent Wulf who played with Paris St Germain in Super League, international pack men Romain Sort and Laurent Carrasco and Australian forwards Brock Mueller and Dragan Durdevic.

Their only new casualty is Christophe Canal who is out with an arm injury.

Villeneuve will be hoping to repeat last year's Challenge Cup achievement when they beat Keighley before going down to Dewsbury in the fifth round.

Updated: 10:55 Saturday, February 10, 2001