Otley are boosted by full-strength squad

11:20pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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Otley are hoping to steal a march on one of their promotion rivals on Saturday in National League Two.

The leaders are at home to Redruth, while Manchester and Stourbridge - the other two contenders for a place in National League One who are two points behind Otley - square up in Cheshire.

"We can only hope that they don't contrive a draw with both teams getting a bonus point for four tries," said Otley's Peter Clegg tonight.

However, the director of rugby at Cross Green is understandably more concerned with what happens against Redruth.

"For the first time in a while we have a full-strength squad to pick from," said Clegg.

"The only doubt is Ian Shuttleworth, who picked up an ankle injury in our defeat against Stourbridge.

"But we have James Murray waiting in the wings if Ian doesn't recover, as well as Alistair Monks, who played in our match at Redruth earlier in the season."

Plenty is riding on this match, and the following three, but Clegg didn't sound to be consumed by nerves.

He said: "We have played well all season and we are leading the table.

"It is up to the others to catch us and we just need to go out and play.

"We went down to Redruth, which is a difficult place to play, and we won.

"We treat everybody with respect but I don't feel that Redruth are as good a side away from home as at home."