New defence coach David Larder is confident he can make Huddersfield YMCA an even stronger National III North force.

But the former rugby league back-row forward has admitted it may take some time before his influence starts to pay off.

The YMCA’s 2015-16 competitive campaign gets under way tomorrow with the Yorkshire Cup first-round trip to Ilkley and then the opening League clash at Sheffield the following week.

Larder’s impact isn’t expected to be felt at that stage because of his role as a rugby league assistant coach at Sheffield Eagles, who are currently involved in the Super 8s Qualifiers and a bid to secure Super League status for 2016.

But once his commitments with the South Yorkshire club have been completed at the end of next month, Larder knows he’ll relish the challenge of trying to give the YMCA a more professional edge.

“This is a massive challenge and opportunity for me, and I can’t wait to get cracking,” said Larder, whose father Phil helped coach England to World Cup glory in 2003 and is the British and Irish Lions defensive coach.

“I’m under no illusions as to how tough it’s going to be for me at first. I did play union here as a kid, but my experience as a union coach is pretty limited and I’m going to have to take a lot of advice off the other coaches at the club.

“At the moment, my Sheffield commitments mean I’m only coming up to training about once a week, but I can already see certain areas where I believe I can help make the team better.

“I spend a lot of my time at the Eagles working on the defensive aspect of the game, which is why I’ve been given the defence coach’s role at the YM, and I’ll be looking to pass on some of that knowledge to the boys here. I think the defensive aspect of the game is largely overlooked in union, especially when compared to league.

“But improving the general skills level of the players here is also something that I believe can be improved.

“Damon Scholes (the YMCA director of rugby) has been pestering me to come up here for a couple of years now, because he firmly believes I can bring more of a professional edge to the set-up, and I suppose it’s a case that I’ve finally cracked!

“During my 20 years as a player at Halifax, Keighley, Leigh and Rochdale, I think I’ve picked up some good, professional habits, and now it’s the time for me to try and pass those on to the players at Laund Hill.

“To be honest, I’m really excited by the club’s prospects, because I can see a lot of potential in the players.

“The club has done fantastically well to get where it is now, but I genuinely believe we can get even better.”

It wouldn’t, however, be the greatest of surprises if the YMCA’s county cup challenge came to an end at Ilkley this weekend.

Rather than going all out for Yorkshire Cup glory, the visitors will use the knockout clash to keep working on their new combinations and give fringe first-team players the chance to prove they should be involved in the early League encounters.

Huddersfield YMCA: Watson, Wrafter, Hill, Moore, Slater, Housley, Seif, Hodge, Broughton, Lumb, Fletcher, Morton, Bulloch, Grotty, Berry, Ryder, Sellers, Tetley, Bell.