IT hasn't taken long for Wharfedale to thrust their New Zealand recruit Daniel Snee into the first team spotlight.

They travel to Blaydon in the Powergen Cup with a side that has a hint of the experimental about it.

Snee comes in at centre as spikey young half back Chris Meehan has risen to the challenge and seems to have ticked all the right boxes on the field for the selectors with a strong display in Cornwall last week.

Snee has played almost as much at inside centre as at stand off and if he does "what it says on the tin" then this has the look of an exciting back line forming.

Chris Malherbe moves out to the wing and Andy Lovatt drops to the bench.

There's another reshuffle in the pack as the coaches put Robert Baldwin under scrutiny at No 8, although there is the insurance policy of Ben Wade sitting on the bench.

Hedley Verity is rested from the match, more as a precaution than out of necessity after a knock to the knee last week.

John Lawn is named at hooker but whether he lasts or even starts may be in doubt. He was confidently named in the team last week - and grabbed our headline - but suffered a reaction in training and was forced to drop out of the squad. Gavin Hindle, who coach Peter Hartley singled out for having a "fantastic" game at Launceston, will be on the bench at least.

Hartley admits that, given the choice, he would sooner be facing a home league fixture to consolidate last week's tremendous morale-boosting win in Cornwall. Instead Wharfedale must tread carefully against a team from a lower division who are bound to need little motivation to take a scalp.

Wharfedale surprised many by coming up trumps at Launceston but Hartley said you can often tell in midweek training and there was undoubtedly a special buzz under the Avenue floodlights. That translated into a victory more comprehensive than the final score suggests.

"It was never really in doubt, we were in control throughout," said Hartley. "Maybe we should have scored more tries but perhaps that would have taken the edge and intensity off our play.

"We were always in control but never in the comfort zone and sometimes that's a good situation to be in.

"I don't think people realise how much that first game against Doncaster took out of us. We were battered, mentally as well as physically, and the next game didn't help.

"We started to come out of it against Manchester, particularly in the second half."

With that first win safely in the bag, the pessimists who haunt the corridors of the Wharfedale clubhouse have been silenced, albeit temporarily, and a true test of the recovery will follow next week, when Nuneaton head to the Dales.

Before that there's the little matter of the cup to negotiate.

With seven substitutes allowed, rather than the four in the league, Wharfedale have packed the bench with forward experience - Andy Peel, Gavin Hindle, Neil Dickenson, Ben Pattinson and Ben Wade is more than halfway to a first team pack.

Orrell await the winners of tomorrow's contest in the third round, which Blaydon have never reached before. They beat Blackburn 39-0 to reach this stage. They can take heart from Wharfedale's unimpressive record in recent seasons against clubs from a lower division in the cup.

Wharfedale have lost three of the last four cup ties they have played against a lower ranked team, slipping up at Plymouth Albion in 2000, at Nuneaton in 2001 and against New Brighton in 2002.

Wharfedale: Davies; Horsfall, Snee, Baggett, Malherbe; Meehan, Newton; P Peel, Lawn, Ingram, Capstick, Lister, A Allen, Baldwin, Hargreaves

Replacements: A Peel, Hindle, Dickenson, Pattison, Wade, Oldfield, Lovatt