MARK SOWERBY has been forced to reshuffle Huddersfield’s back division for tomorrow’s National III North game against Darlington Mowden Park.
Should the game get the go-ahead – Huddersfield already have two matches outstanding against Kendal away and Harrogate at home – then the club’s Director of Rugby will be aiming to reverse the losing trend against a struggling Darlington team who are next-to-bottom in the division.
“We may have come out of a run of difficult games, but we certainly won’t be taking Mowden Park lightly. Although they are struggling, this will be one game which they will have targeted as one they could win,” said Sowerby.
“We are reasonably strong, and if we can continue the sort of form we showed in the second half of last week’s game against table-topping Caldy, we should be able to run some points up.”
Sowerby will be without Matt Clarke, who came into the side on the wing late last week owing to an injury to Adam Sutcliffe, and who is still unavailable.
In his place, Alex Shaw steps up into his more familiar winger’s role, with Ben Paxman dropping back to full-back and James Mortimore getting the nod at inside centre.
Up front, Sam Slater continues at open-side prop, but this week Chris Gough gets the starting place at hooker with James Davies taking a rest on the bench.
Huddersfield edged a 28-26 win in the North East back in October. Sowerby will not want his side ‘skating on thin ice’ in tomorrow’s return match.
Huddersfield: Paxman (B), Johnson (M), Paxman (L), Mortimore, Shaw; Johnson (C), Clayton; Slater, Gough, Stringwell, Harris, Rhodes, Hinchliff, Whitehead, Jacobsz. Subs: Battye, Davies, Hinchliffe, Sharpe, Sowerby.
