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Littleborough v Yarnbury Preview Papa Johns Cup By Connor McKeown
Steve Lee11 Apr - 09:16
Yarnbury make the short trip over to Lancashire in the opening round of this years competition
Match Preview: Littleborough – Yarnbury (Papa John’s Cup)
After finishing the season with a rugged display in Baildon, a confident Yarnbury look to progress in the cup against stiff competition, with a trip over the Pennines to Littleborough.
After a hiccup against Roundhegians a few weeks ago, the side managed to finish their season in style with a 12-23 win over Baildon, with George Butler scoring a brilliant try and Max Lee performing to his best abilities, earning himself Man of the Match.
Yarnbury face a tough challenge this weekend against Littleborough in the Papa John’s Cup, with the two sides not being too dissimilar - in terms of league form. Travelling Yarnbury finished second place this year in the Yorkshire County Second Division, with their campaign being a definite vote of confidence for the tie, but Littleborough finished just a place behind them in third in the Lancashire and Cheshire Second Division.
To try and compare the two in terms of the tie, let’s start with the home side. In the league, Littleborough have scored 370 points in 11 matches at home this season, with side averaging roughly 34 points a game. However, the side have conceded more points at home than they have done on the road, conceding 190 points. Their home record reads eight wins, one draw and two losses.
Comparing this to Yarnbury’s away record - it’s almost identical. Yarnbury have scored 368 points in 11 games on the road, averaging 33 points per game, and have conceded 208 points – just 18 more than the home side. To show the strength of Yarnbury’s away form, it matches that of Littleborough’s home form of eight wins, one draw and two losses, so, it clears to see that this game will be that of fine lines.
The team news for the weekend after Josh Bateson’s wrist injury sees a shakeup in the backline, with no changes in the forwards. There is a change at scrum-half this weekend, with Cameron Newby replacing Sam Puxley. Dan Pound will be the fly-half this weekend, with Will Marshall replacing him at full-back, meaning Max Lee will replace him at outside centre. To play on the right in the place of the injured Bateson will be Joe Stafford – Littleborough being his dad’s former club.
Despite the changes in the backline, Yarnbury still have plenty of quality. Marshall, although he isn’t usually a full-back, has been in great form and having Lee as a strike player at outside centre can’t be a bad thing. Pound closer to the ball gives him more opportunity to control the game, but it shouldn’t go unnoticed the quality he has shown at full-back, with me having full faith in him to carry that quality into fly-half. Undoubtably, this will be an important game off the tee for Pound – one thing to keep an eye on.
Ethan Kerr makes his debut from the bench.
Hopefully there will be plenty of supporters travelling down to sunny Littleborough to get behind the team in what is yet another important away tie this season in the cup.
The game is on Saturday 12th April, kicking off at 3pm.
I wish the team the best of luck and I hope that they can knock off the opposition this weekend.
After finishing the season with a rugged display in Baildon, a confident Yarnbury look to progress in the cup against stiff competition, with a trip over the Pennines to Littleborough.
After a hiccup against Roundhegians a few weeks ago, the side managed to finish their season in style with a 12-23 win over Baildon, with George Butler scoring a brilliant try and Max Lee performing to his best abilities, earning himself Man of the Match.
Yarnbury face a tough challenge this weekend against Littleborough in the Papa John’s Cup, with the two sides not being too dissimilar - in terms of league form. Travelling Yarnbury finished second place this year in the Yorkshire County Second Division, with their campaign being a definite vote of confidence for the tie, but Littleborough finished just a place behind them in third in the Lancashire and Cheshire Second Division.
To try and compare the two in terms of the tie, let’s start with the home side. In the league, Littleborough have scored 370 points in 11 matches at home this season, with side averaging roughly 34 points a game. However, the side have conceded more points at home than they have done on the road, conceding 190 points. Their home record reads eight wins, one draw and two losses.
Comparing this to Yarnbury’s away record - it’s almost identical. Yarnbury have scored 368 points in 11 games on the road, averaging 33 points per game, and have conceded 208 points – just 18 more than the home side. To show the strength of Yarnbury’s away form, it matches that of Littleborough’s home form of eight wins, one draw and two losses, so, it clears to see that this game will be that of fine lines.
The team news for the weekend after Josh Bateson’s wrist injury sees a shakeup in the backline, with no changes in the forwards. There is a change at scrum-half this weekend, with Cameron Newby replacing Sam Puxley. Dan Pound will be the fly-half this weekend, with Will Marshall replacing him at full-back, meaning Max Lee will replace him at outside centre. To play on the right in the place of the injured Bateson will be Joe Stafford – Littleborough being his dad’s former club.
Despite the changes in the backline, Yarnbury still have plenty of quality. Marshall, although he isn’t usually a full-back, has been in great form and having Lee as a strike player at outside centre can’t be a bad thing. Pound closer to the ball gives him more opportunity to control the game, but it shouldn’t go unnoticed the quality he has shown at full-back, with me having full faith in him to carry that quality into fly-half. Undoubtably, this will be an important game off the tee for Pound – one thing to keep an eye on.
Ethan Kerr makes his debut from the bench.
Hopefully there will be plenty of supporters travelling down to sunny Littleborough to get behind the team in what is yet another important away tie this season in the cup.
The game is on Saturday 12th April, kicking off at 3pm.
I wish the team the best of luck and I hope that they can knock off the opposition this weekend.
Further reading