Wharfedale host basement club Cambridge on Saturday (2pm) in only their fifth SSE National League One home match of the season.

After two fruitless defeats, albeit against top-five sides in rich form, the Greens will be looking to return to winning ways.

Matches against Cambridge are never less than entertaining, with the honours going mostly to the hosts, but the Greens will be chasing their fourth straight win over the “Blood and Sand”.

Cambridge have struggled since losing many of their professional players last season. Their only victories have been at home, against Tynedale and, in early season, Loughborough.

Greens coach Tom McGee underlined the importance of the match, saying: “Having lost our last two home games we are determined to restore momentum and this side is shaping up to be one to give us the match control we need.

“This is an important occasion for the club, and with the Leeds match on the following day, we hope to give our spectators a great weekend of rugby.”

Carnegie play their latest ‘on the road’ fixture at the Avenue on Sunday against Moseley.

Wharfedale keep faith with the pack which performed so well at Cinderford, but welcome back the all-round skills of full back Christian Georgiou.

Otley secretary Marc Lawrence, meanwhile, has warned his team of the need to compete for 80 minutes on a regular basis.

Having witnessed their 40-22 defeat last Saturday at Darlington Mowden Park, he said: “There is no question about our fitness as our players were still going strong at the end while some of the Darlington players were out on their feet.

“And we scored 17 points late in the game but we seem to be chasing matches too often because of what we do in the first 60 minutes. The opposition seem to be hungrier than us then.”

On saturday, Otley are at home to Sheffield Tigers in National Two North and Lawrence said: “It might mean more to them as it is a Yorkshire derby but we just want to win the game.”

Lawrence also paid tribute to prop Adam Blades, who has featured in 100 straight league clashes for Otley.

“I think it is 99 starts and one appearance on the replacements’ bench after a trip to Dubai but it is some achievement and I have a lot of respect for Adam. He is a model professional.”

Wharfedale: C Georgiou; J Donkin, M Clark, A Hodgson (c), S Horsfall; L Gray, J Gough; A Mason, S Graham, M Tampin, R Brown, R Rhodes, D Barrow, D Solomi, A Allen. Replacements: I Larkin, A Howard, J Tyson, W Bell, T Davidson.