Otley’s director of rugby Tom Rock reckons team selection for Saturday’s SSE National League Two North match at Luctonians could be the toughest of the season.

“We have quite a few lads available, Tom O’Donnell is back from suspension and there were one or two who put their hands up by their performances in the Yorkshire Cup last Saturday at Middlesbrough,” said Rock, who missed the match because of a long-standing holiday commitment.

Otley, whose team included Curtis Wilson, Jon Matthews, Ollie Richards and James Henry, went down 31-26 to the North One East promotion hopefuls.

“It would have been nice to have earned ourselves a Yorkshire Cup tie at Wharfedale with a competitive performance, and that was certainly the intention, but as it was I understand we gave a competitive performance and were narrowly beaten.

“Ollie Richards has been gagging for a match, and James Henry and Jon Matthews, who have been in and around the first team, also both needed some game-time, as did Curtis Wilson after his glandular fever.

“I have heard good things about the lads from the Saracens, for whom it was a chance to step up and test themselves, and I will find out more out at training this week.

“But we were up against an older and more experienced pack who scored three or four tries from rolling mauls after driven line-outs, and that is an area where we are aiming to improve.”

Otley might not have had a league match last weekend but five matches were played, and Leicester Lions’ 18-18 home draw against Huddersfield only served to tighten things up at the bottom.

Only three points separate four teams from second-bottom upwards, and even if you include 11th-placed Hull Ionians, it is only seven points separating five.

“It is very close down there,” admitted Rock, “but we are in a good place (fifth from bottom with only three to go down).

“We are out of a relegation berth and now all the teams in the league have played the same number of matches (25).”

Rock added: “I feel we have turned a corner since Christmas.

“If one or two things had gone our way we would have been safe in mid-table but I am not even ruling out bottom club Kendal from staying up as they still have Harrogate to play and there are no cricket scores in this division.”

Rock added: “We know what is ahead of us. We have a reasonable run-in compared to others and we are targeting wins from our two home matches (Nuneaton, March 31 and Stockport, April 21) and the aim is to sneak a win from at least one of our away matches (Luctonians, Saturday; Preston Grasshoppers, April 14; Hull Ionians, April 28).

“Two of those matches are against teams around us and I am confident that we will stay up.”