Driffield 1st XV head North to face Percy Park 1st XV. No game for the seconds, and our 3rds and 4ths travel to Goole to face their 2nds and 3rds.
1st team make the trip north to face a Percy Park side involved in the relegation battle. Currently sitting 4th from bottom, they need a couple more wins at least to guarantee North One East status for next season. They won a ’10-pointer’ last Saturday, beating 3rd-from-bottom Durham City in a high scoring game 45 – 50. They have had a some good results at home this season, with wins over Kendal 34 – 14, Scarborough 26 – 14 and Cleck 29 – 19. They have struggled away from home with only 3 wins : at West Hartlepool 12 – 43, Durham City 45 – 50 and their stand-out performance came at York, winning 35 – 15 back in October.
Last season it was one apiece between us : we lost up North 18 – 7 and won at Kelleythorpe 49 – 21. Looking through the history books we have played each other 18 times so far. We first met in the 2005/06 season, North 2 East league. Both teams won their home games in style, Driffield winning 54 – 5, Park winning 45-8 in the reverse.
Out of the 18 matches played, Driffield have won 11, and Park 7. Driffield have the edge in recent games too. The game in North Shields last year was Park’s 1st victory in this tie for quite a while – in fact you have to go back to the 15/16 season for their last win before that.
Driffield will start full of confidence following last week’s demolition of Scarborough. Driffield dominated Scarborough in every department of the game, with Scarborough picking up their try in the last few moments of the match. A few changes to the squad for various reasons : Longville is replaced by Blacker at full back; Kelly starts on the wing; Robson starts in place of Nellen in the front row; and Jack Sowersby joins the back row. Maling and Tom Sowersby take their places on the bench.
No game for the 2nd team following their win at Sheffield Tigers last weekend. 3rd and 4th XVs head to Goole to face their 2nds and 3rds.
Good luck to all.