ILKLEY's players are being urged to get out of the blocks quicker.

Head of rugby Rhys Morgan has pin-pointed slow starts as something his team has to eradicate as they prepare for Saturday's National League Three home clash with Billingham at Stacks Field.

It was certainly a major concern for Morgan after last week's 47-21 defeat at Hull. "We have to get into the game quicker and impose ourselves from the first minute," he said. "We have had slow starts in all of our matches so far and we cannot afford letting the trend to continue.

"At Hull the match was effectively over in the first 15 minutes and we found ourselves chasing the game. We made to increase our intensity and readiness for action.

"We cannot allow moments of poor decision making, individual errors and moments of individual indiscipline such as we had at Hull. Our passing was poor too and we cannot afford to turn ball over at this level.

"We have to get our game heads on and make sure that we are the team calling the tune from the first whistle."

Prop John Cooksey injured a foot at Hull and is expected to be sidelined for three or four weeks, but second row Pete Small Iain McKenzie and player-coach Stevie Graham, three experience forwards, look set to return.