Huddersfield YMCA have Simon Wilson back at scrum half as they look to climb out of the National III North bottom three with victory over Ilkley on Saturday.
It’s a 2.15pm kick-off at Laund Hill against an Ilkley side just two places and three points above YM in the table, and director of rugby Damon Scholes is hoping Wilson can be there from first minute to last.
He was injured in the warm-up last week as YM lost 23-5 at Billingham and had to sit through the match on the bench without ever having chance to play.
Sam Fletcher moved from full-back to No9 at the 11th hour and did sterling service, but Wilson has been receiving treatment for a back injury all week and is expected to resume.
That will be a big boost – with Fletcher reverting to No15 – and Scholes believes the club are due a bit more good luck.
“We just can’t buy a break at the moment and the injury to Simon Wilson last week just sums up how things have been going,” said Scholes.
“Sam Fletcher did an admirable job stepping in at the last minute, but it was just another thing for your new No10 Jack Ledgard to deal with.
“Jack is still getting used to the players around him and it’s a big responsibility on young shoulders, but he is starting to show glimpses of the potential which we believe he has.
“We feel he will be a really good player for us going forward and, to be fair, we have a lot of players in the back line who are still learning and you have to take that into account.”
Josh Wrafter is unavailable, but his brother Lewis – a winger who is probably the fastest player on the YM books – is included in the squad.
“The rest of this season is all about maintaining our National III North status,” said Scholes, who also has loose-head prop James Watson available again.
“It’s the first time in five or six years we’ve had a struggling season, a relegation battle, but sometimes it breeds character – and that’s what we need to show.
“We need players to step up and lead us, especially in conditions like we are expecting on Saturday, but our home form has been good and we want to keep that going.”
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YM, in fact, are unbeaten at home for two months, when they threw away victory in a high-scoring game against Firwood Waterloo, and they are keen to add the scalp of Ilkley to that growing list.
Huddersfield YMCA: (from) Fletcher, Gibson, Stead, Ryder, Hemsley, Ledgard, Pooloogadoo, Wilson, Wrafter (L), Slater, Watson, Moore, Edwards, Housley, Starbuck, Hodge, Bell, Robertson, Dyson.
