It promises to be another special day in the history of Huddersfield YMCA.
A win over Wirral in Saturday’s home clash (2.15) will almost certainly guarantee the men from Laund Hill a second season in National III North.
And with seven of their last 12 fixtures at home – including five out of the bottom seven – YMCA director of rugby Damon Scholes is already feeling 100% positive about the future.
“If everything goes according to plan, the celebrations at Laund Hill on Saturday should be pretty special,” predicted Scholes.
“With this being our first season at national level, there was always a slight concern we’d find it tough.
“But we needn’t have worried. The boys have adapted superbly to playing this high up, and I think it’s safe to say that if we beat Wirral this weekend we can stop thinking about going straight back down.
“Mathematically, I don’t think we’re quite there, but it would take the strangest of results in the history of the game between now and the end of the season to deny us a National III North spot next season.
“I just hope this also means the players can relax a bit more and take things up another notch in our remaining games.
“Because we’ve got what we believe is a pretty decent run-in, we can now start to focus on a potential top-six finish rather than anything else.”
And it would be something of a surprise if Wirral were to spoil the YMCA’s planned party this weekend.
While the Huddersfield club are sitting in a comfortable eighth spot, Wirral are involved in a relegation dogfight in 12th.
That points to a solid home win, especially with YMCA player-coach Mark Whitehead having an almost full-strength squad at his disposal.
“We’ve still got Chris Clarke sidelined with an ankle injury, but apart from that we’re pretty healthy,” added Scholes.
“And, all being well, we’ll finally have Ed Barber back in the halves and firing on all cylinders again.
“Because of his shoulder problem and then knee injury, that’s something he’s not been able to do so far this season.
“With Ed being one of our most influential players we know how much difference he’ll make for us.”
Huddersfield YMCA: Stead, Tindall, Bulloch, Bentley, Ryder, Van Rooyen, Barber, Wood, Wilson, Moore, Dyke, Watson, Murphy, Hill, Bell, Housley, Whitehead, Hodge, Lumb, Wrafter, Dyson.
