WREXHAM head coach Alan Jenkins has challenged his side to repeat last weekend’s performance as they host Shotton Steel in first round of the Welsh National Bowl, writes Jack Harrison.

A commanding performance saw Wrexham run out 44-13 victors in their Division Two North battle at Bryn Estyn Lane six days ago.

But speaking ahead of Saturday’s rematch, Jenkins believes it will be difficult to replicate that result.

“We were good at times last week but we know we can get better.

“We’ve worked on a few things we struggled with last week so hopefully that can pay off,” said Jenkins.

“The players know they’ll need to be better to get a similar result and that’s the challenge for us.

“We identified the cup as a target towards the end of last season, so hopefully we can get into the next round come Saturday.”

Saturday’s man of the match, Nick Dodd, also believes that they will need to improve in order to progress.

“Last week is irrelevant now, all our focus is on winning this game on Saturday,” said Dodd,

“We’ve got a lot to work on because we left points out there and we can’t afford to do that if we’re wanting promotion.

“Hopefully the stuff we’ve worked on this week will pay dividends and we can get the job done.”

Elsewhere in the competition, Newtown host Llanidloes in the Mid-Wales derby, Bangor travel to Welshpool, Rhyl host Abergele in a repeat of last week and Nant Conwy seconds play at Colwyn Bay.

In the first round of the Welsh National Plate, Llandudno host Caernarfon, Pwllheli travel to COBRA, Llangefni play at home to Bala, Bro Ffestiniog go to Dolgellau, Bethesda host Denbigh and Ruthin travel to Nant Conwy.

Wrexham seconds team captain Danny Guy is hopeful that his side can register their first win of the campaign as they host Division Three rivals Menai Bridge.

His side fell short of Mold seconds 17-5 last weekend and Guy is adamant there is a lot to work on.

“We let ourselves down last weekend,” he said.

“We were so poor for the opening 10 minutes and found ourselves 17-0 down, in this league you can’t get away with doing that, which is something we need to realise.

“We’ve got to get more clinical if we want to succeed in this league, we’ve trained hard this week so it’ll be nice for that to pay off on Saturday.”

Flint’s Director of Rugby, Aled Davies, believes Saturday's away clash at league leaders Holyhead will offer a good measure of his side’s progress.

The Cae-y-Castell side were in ruthless mood last weekend, running in 10 tries in a 58-12 rout of Rhos.

Reflecting on that result, Davies said: “I am not getting carried away.

“Being honest that was the result I expected against a plucky Rhos side. Though it wasn’t our most clinical display.

“Last year we had a home win and an away draw against Holyhead, with a last kick of the game conversion narrowly missing by inches to deprive us of the victory away.

“We will be in a hard game, it looks like they started well too.

“I never focus to much on our opposition in the build up though.

“My focus, and that of our coaching set up is on improving our defence and attack week by week.

“I am confident we have enough in the tank to bring home a positive result.”

In North Wales Division Three, Mold seconds go to Pwllheli seconds, Ruthin seconds play at home to Llangefni seconds and Machynlleth host Denbigh seconds.