It’s fair to say we are at the business end of the season. After 23 games, Hull RUFC find themselves 11 points clear of Sedgley Park, who happen to be their next opponents. As this is Cheltenham Festival week, Hull are leading the field and everyone hopes they finish the season like Constitution Hill on the first day of the festival. With so much at stake, director of rugby Gary Pearce has decided to give his players a well earned rest this weekend which was a free weekend for catch-up games to be played. Pearce believes the break has come at a good time for players to shake off any niggling knocks they might have.
“We’ve given the lads the weekend off,” Pearce said.
“Some players are carrying knocks, so this will give them a bit more time to recover from those.
“We’ll have a light session on Thursday and have a look at the video of Sedgley Park and start thinking about that game.
“At this stage of the season, we probably wouldn’t have got a lot out of training on Saturday.
“This is the critical stage of the season and we will need every member of the squad available.
“When we face Sedgley Park, we should have 26 or 27 players to choose from.
“We are hoping to have Laurence Cowen back while Tom O’Donnell is close to returning and those would be two massive boosts.
“The players have earned the weekend off, but when you are winning, you want to keep playing.
“But it will be good to freshen things up within the squad for the last stretch of the season.
“The pitches are firming up and we are looking forward to getting back into action.
“We played really well in the first half against Wharfedale although the second half was a bit sloppy.
“If someone had offered us that win before the game, we’d have snapped their hand off.”
HULL RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 