Laois hurling boss Niall Rigney is focused on leading his side to promotion from Division 2 of the National League. The O'Moore County had 12 points to spare over GMIT in their Walsh Cup opener last Sunday, and Rigney sees this weekend's clash with Galway as ideal preparation for the league campaign. "We want Galway, that's who we want to play and it's preparation for the National Hurling League. I've approached it differently this year, we aim to be ultra-competitive for the league," he said. "We have a good, strong panel and we have a few more lads to come into it like James Walsh and Joe Fitzpatrick, and the Portlaoise footballers. The more competition we have, which is something we didn't have last year, the better. "It pushes lads to compete for a position and it makes my job easier because I can see lads fighting for it, that's the situation Brian Cody is in in Kilkenny, he has so many lads fighting for positions and that's what we need here." Laois hit an impressive 1-25 in last weekend's win over the students, and while he realises that scores won't come as easy against stronger opposition, he has still set a target of 22 points per game for this team this season. "I set a target for the lads see can we can hit 22 scores in every game, 11 in each half, that's our target. We had 15 points on the board at half time and we finished with 1-25 which was good, but our target is 22 scores every game, and if can get 22 scores and you're beaten then it will take a good team to beat you." Tweet

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