Hart takes lead role for Wharfedale's trail-finding trip to face league leaders Ealing (From Craven Herald)

Hart takes lead role for Wharfedale's trail-finding trip to face league leaders Ealing

9:13am Thursday 19th January 2012 in Wharfedale

Wharfedale are heading into two tough SSE National League One fixtures with a spring in their step.

They have had their confidence restored by their 31-30 victory at home to Blackheath.

And they will visit fourth-placed Ealing Trailfinders on Saturday and host leaders Jersey seven days later with renewed optimism.

Wharfedale’s player-coach Tom McGee admitted: “We lost confidence after our 36-17 defeat at Birmingham & Solihull the previous week.

“We had travelled there in good spirits but Birmingham were the better side and we didn’t come up with a Plan B, so credit to them.

“We concentrated all the week leading up to the Blackheath game on getting back to where we had been, doing the simple things well and we came up with a win.”

McGee, whose team had won six of their seven matches before facing Birmingham, said of the Blackheath match: “We started each half slowly but the more important thing is that we finished each half strongly too and we scored some nice tries.”

Coaches often don’t like singling out individuals for praise but McGee said of flanker James Holland: “He has done well since coming into the side.”

With Rob Baldwin suspended, Wharfedale have handed the captaincy to Dan Hart at Ealing.

In-form Richard Brown moves to number eight to fill Baldwin’s place in the back row, while Richard Rhodes comes in to the second row.

Young Joe Altham starts at prop with veteran Neil Dickinson dropping to the bench.

Wharfedale: Luke Gray; Scott Jordan, Dan Hart (capt), Tom Davidson, Simon Horsfall; Will Bell, Philip Woodhead; Joe Altham, Steve Graham, Tom McGee, Richard Rhodes, Joe Quinn, James Holland, Aaron Myers, Richard Brown. Replacements: Neil Dickinson, Ben Sowrey, Dan Solomi, James Tincknell, Tom Barrett.