TORFAEN Tigers will have to be on their best behaviour when they kick-off their 2020 Coral Challenge Cup campaign after being drawn away to Great Britain Police in the first round.

The Tigers went to Cumbria for their opening tie last time out, but they won’t have as far to go next month with their opponents normally playing home games around the Yorkshire area.

It is the first time in 11 years that Wales have had two clubs involved in the first stage of the competition.

Rhondda Outlaws will continue the recent South Wales tradition of going to Cumbria, having been drawn away to Barrow Island.

The last time a Welsh club were drawn at home in this round was in 2015 when Valley Cougars hosted and beat Leicester Storm.

Tigers head coach Ian Newbury said: “We don’t know a great deal about the Great Britain Police side, apart from the fact they won their first-round match in the cup last year.

“Plus, our team manger Byron Edwards may know about them through his time playing sport with the prison service.

“I’m sure they’re all going to be experienced rugby league players, and will no doubt be a tough side, but we did well in the Southern Conference last year and only just lost to the competition’s eventual winners in the quarter-finals.

“So, we’ll go up there with a positive attitude and it should be a good game.”

Outlaws head coach James Allen added: “It’ll be a long journey for us, but it’s a challenge we’ll look forward to.

“We’re already in our third week of training to prepare for this match so hopefully we’ll have our structures right.

“Barrow Island will be a very tough side to take on, especially at home, so we’ll need to be at our best.”

The 22 first-round ties will take place over the weekend of January 11-12 with one to be selected for live streaming by the BBC and another by the RFL’s Our League cameras.

The first semi-professional clubs, including North Wales Crusaders and West Wales Raiders, will enter at the third-round stage on the weekend of February 8-9.

Championship clubs enter two weeks later in the fourth round, four Super League clubs – Huddersfield Giants, Hull KR, Wakefield Trinity and Toronto Wolfpack – in round five and the remainder in round six.

The final itself will be played more than a month earlier than in 2019 – on Saturday, July 18.