Wharfedale coach Tom McGee says that their two weeks of inactivity should not be used as an excuse for their 21-14 National League One.

The Dalesmen’s last two fixtures at home to Sedgley Park and at Cinderford were both victims of the frost, while Blackheath were able to fulfil their matches at home to Tynedale (won 25-18) and at Stourbridge (lost 36-16).

“Our lack of matches had a part to play and we did lack a bit of sharpness but it should never be used as an excuse,” admitted McGee.

“We still created enough opportunities to have won the game. We played great rugby in patches, particularly in the first half.

“But being without Adam Whaites and then losing Andy Hodgson after only eight minutes didn’t help us.

“Tom Barratt is doing great at fly half but he needs the experience of Chris Malherbe and Andy Hodgson to help him out sometimes.

“You need your leaders and we lacked that bit of direction and we also had to play people in different positions, such as Tom Davidson at full back, which he hasn’t played for a while.

“But our driving maul was superb and if we had won one more line-out at the end I think we could have drawn the game.

“We suffered from a careless off-load earlier in the match, and that could also have happened because of a lack of matches.

“But, far from kicking possession away, we could have put boot to ball more and pressurised Blackheath.

“I said to the lads on Tuesday night that our pitch was wet but it was still green where we wanted to play.”

Wharfedale have dropped to 12th but McGee is not alarmed, saying: “I am not looking at the table. I am just looking at us on a week by week basis, and we have a difficult match at home to Cambridge on Saturday.”

The high fliers come to The Avenue having suffered only four defeats all season, three of which were against the two clubs vying for promotion to the Championship.

This is a side which does not slip up, a side which has scored 60 tries and conceded only 29, notching up the try-scoring bonus point in 13 of their 18 matches.

Subject to a couple of late fitness tests, the Greens have announced the following selection: Wharfedale: Adam Whaites; James Druce, Chris Malherbe, Andrew Hodgson, Simon Horsfall; Tom Barrett, Philip Woodhead; Chris Steel, Steve Graham, Ben Hooper, Alastair Allen, Richard Brown, Talite Vaioleti, Dan Solomi, Rob Baldwin (captain). Replacements: Adam Mason, Ian Larkin, David Hughes, Tom Davidson, Dan Matthews.