YORK Acorn ARLC are hoping for a crowd in excess of 500 for their highly-anticipated TV debut on Saturday - and an improvement in discipline in front of the cameras.

The Blue and Golds - buoyed by their brilliant win over promotion favourites Featherstone Lions in their National Conference League division one opener - take on Bradford Dudley Hill (4.15pm) at Thanet Road in a match to be shown on FreeSports, a free-to-air channel available on Freeview and Sky.

As reported by The Press, they were one of the first teams to be picked for live broadcast on the new weekly amateur rugby league slot. And head coach Leigh Paul-Rientoul says the club on and off the pitch are relishing the occasion.

"It's had quite a big build-up," he said. "Every man and his dog has been training this week. They all want to be involved.

"I've had to stress to them that while this is a big game on the telly, we should be acting like this every week if we want to do well this season.

"We were talking at the club about attendances - we'd like to think we could get at least 500 with a bit of luck. We've done a bit of work at the ground in readiness for it and obviously a bigger crowd would make for a better atmosphere on the TV."

On the pitch, Paul-Rientoul says much work has been done in training on keeping discipline, after three players - winger Josh Thompson and back-rowers Matthew Woods and Reece Rushworth - were all sent off in that feisty game against the Lions, who themselves had two men red-carded.

"We've been working on attitude and the things we're in control of," he explained.

"We hit the self-destruct button against Featherstone - we were 16-0 up but then put pressure on ourselves going down to their level and getting red cards.

"We need them to stay in control. They're young lads full of testosterone and it's hard to keep them all calm at once.

"Sometimes with one or two of them, I turn away when they go into contact or into a tackle because they're a ticking timebomb.

"We've just told them that getting sent off or sin-binned is not only letting themselves down but letting down the team, who have to play the rest of the match short-handed or have to play games with those lads banned.

"They just need to think about that the next time they're going to punch someone or tell the referee he's a whatever."

Thompson, Woods and Rushworth remain available this week with no date yet set for their disciplinary hearings, while second-rower Jordan Hyde is back in contention after proving his fitness.

Jack Byrnes is still sidelined but the postponement due to the weather of last week's game at Skirlaugh means veteran packman Tom Hill, who picked up a hamstring pull in training last week, has had an extra week to get fit.

Off the pitch, the aforementioned work at the ground includes spinning the training zone floodlights around so they face the main pitch in case overcast conditions means it gets darker during the second half on Saturday. Even if only one side of the pitch will be floodlit, the club are hoping it trials well enough with sufficient light to allow evening games to take place in the future.