14 May 2005
Both Yorkshire and Lancashire, the first-round winners in the Northern section of the County Championship, go into action today (Saturday) knowing that victory will set up a winner-takes-all Roses match at Sedgley Park next weekend.
In contrast, their opponents Cheshire and Northumberland respectively, know that defeat will end their hopes of making it to Twickenham for the final on May 29 and will be battling to upset the form-book.

At Tynedale, Lancashire were mightily impressed by their forward effort last week, but still seek to strengthen their pack by bringing in Sedgley Park lock Eric Lund. He was unavailable last weekend because of international duties - he was playing for Norway in a 44-14 European Nations Cup win over Finland.

“We’re looking for another strong performance from the pack and more expansive back-play.” says Chairman of Selectors Maurice Parker. “We also want to make sure that our defensive set-up is OK. We were so dominant up front against Cheshire that we were never fully tested.

“It will also be interesting to see what kind of an impact James Ponton has on the play of our fly-half Neil Hunter and I’m sure there will be one or two exchanges with his Sedgley Park team-mates, especially his back-row colleague Tim Fourie.”

Northumberland make four changes for the game following last week’s defeat by Yorkshire at Harrogate.

Behind the scrum, Richard Windle comes in at fly-half, with Ed Holmes selected as his half-back partner, Micky Dungait moving to the replacements bench.

Blaydon’s Dan Clappison reverts to full-back, with Will Massey moving to the replacements bench, where Alister Grey replaces the injured Rupert Neville.

Up front, Andrew Robson takes over in the back-row from his Tynedale league Jamie Murray.   

Yorkshire make six changes for their game at Hull Ionians, the most significant being at fly-half, where they have not finalised the selection process.

Up front, host club hooker Steve Bowden gets his chance, with Halifax’s Carl Mortimer going onto the bench, while Paul Williams (Otley) moves forward to lock to allow a new-look back-row combination.

Leeds Tykes’ flanker Simon Worrall comes in at open-side flanker and Otley’s Glen Wilson takes the No 8 slot and the captaincy. Matthew Stockdale switches to blind side.

Newcomers on the replacement bench are Hill Ionians scrum-half Mike Aspinall and Wharfedale centre Andy Baggett.

“We’re looking to step up again after our first outing together last weekend,” says coach Bob Hood. “The first-half at Harrogate looked like a pre-season match. We need to pick up the intensity of our play and I think we will. We had a good session last night and there’s plenty of confidence and enthusiasm in the camp.”

Cheshire are simply hoping that they can do a better job in competing with the Yorkshire pack than they managed against Lancashire last Saturday, although they are expecting more of the same.

They call up Orrell’s Ross Winney at full-back, who was unavailable last weekend because of any RFU course, while Halifax centre Richard Hughes – two-try hero of the Ovenden Park men’s Yorkshire Cup final win over Cleckheaton last night – takes over from Marcus Coast, who is unavailable.

The Durham selectors have had to cope with a string of injury problems which have forced a number of changes to side to face North Midlands at Stourbridge in the County Shield.

In the line-up, centre David Haswell (Westoe) has not recovered from his shoulder injury sustained in last weekend’s game against Oxfordshire and his absence brings the recall of Hartlepool Rovers centre Andrew Foreman.

Haswell's club mate Matthew Muchall sustained an ankle injury 10 minutes into the Oxfordshire clash and his replacement that day Mark Power (Hartlepool Rovers ) cannot travel due to work commitments. His absence results in flanker Michael Taylor (Darlington) taking over at lock, with the back-row being re-jigged.

The No 6 jersey goes to Tony Irwin (Sunderland), Irwin's No 8 spot goes to Darlington Mowden Park's Matthew Holmes, who moves from open side flanker and the resulting vacancy is filled by the welcome return after injury of Darlington veteran Martin Howe.

Despite having a couple of injury setbacks, Cumbria remain optimistic as they look ahead to their County Shield tie against Oxfordshire at Penrith.

They bring Stephen Stoddart (Aspatria) onto the wing to replace Manchester’s Jonathan Lowden, who switches to fly-half to replace the injured Gavin Beasley. The composition of the pack will be finalised today.