Stuart Dykes moves into the front row for Huddersfield YMCA at Pocklington to cover for his injured brother Steve.
As YM were beaten 29-15 by Sheffield in North I East at Laund Hill last week, Steve suffered rib cartilage damage and remains in some pain and under treatment.
His place goes to Stuart for the penultimate league fixture – YMCA have already qualified for the promotion play-off on April 26 as runners-up to champions Cleckheaton – while coach Jody Shaw swaps Josh Lumb and Mark Whitehead in the No6 and No8 shirts.
In addition, hookers Niall Murphy and Ben Hill are both fit again, with Murphy getting the nod to start against a Pocklington side who have been a real bogey for YM over the years.
“We were way off our best against Sheffield and our only focus now is to make sure we put that right against Pocklington,” said Shaw, who has Josh Willans at scrum half for the unavailable Simon Wilson.
“When we beat Pocklington earlier in the season it was a massive lift for us and, having let ourselves down against Sheffield, this is the best test we could have.”
Alex Nightingale, who mainly plays in the back row and has impressed in the Second team this season, is called onto the YM bench.
“Someone like Alex, who has trained well all season and played well in the Seconds, are the sort of people you want to reward and he gets his opportunity on the bench for Omar Sharraf,” said Shaw.
“It won’t be an easy game at Pocklington, and we have asked everyone through the week just to concentrate on this 80 minutes and getting back to what we should be doing.
“Pocklington have got a big, strong pack, they generally try to bully the opposition and then they’ve got a fairly quick set of backs who know how to exploit their pitch, so we simply have to be performing as we can.
“There is no point even thinking what we’ve got coming up, the only thing we have to concentrate on is turning up at Pocklington and making sure we are absolutely on top of our game.”
YMCA: Johnson, Stead, Ryder, Barber, Bentley, Wood, Willans, Wrafter, Murphy, Dyke (Stu), Robertson, Housley, Lumb, Hodge, Whitehead. Bench: Hill, Nightingale, Bulloch.
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