By Richard Sykes
The Lockwood Park stage is set for a final showdown which will decide the 2025/26 Regional 1 North West title.
Huddersfield RUFC currently top the table, two points clear of Anselmians who they host on Saturday (April 11) in a winner-takes-all finale.
Anselmians defeated Huddersfield in the season’s opener and are the only team to have done so.
Since then Huddersfield have recorded 20 consecutive, bonus point wins, the last one being a convincing away victory at Bowdon RUFC.
Head coach Danny Brough acknowledges it hasn’t all been plain sailing. His team has had its ups and downs but he is proud of the character of his players and their ability to win through, even when they haven’t been at their best.
Commenting on last week’s game he said: “It was a really physical game. They had a great win at Derby last time out and came out all guns blazing and tried to give us a bit of ‘biff’ but we gave as good as we got, which put us on the front foot.
“We competed for everything, kept hold of the ball and produced a clinical, workmanlike performance. We controlled the game, scored some really cracking tries and came out on top.”
Three of the seven tries that Huddersfield scored against Bowdon came from winger Fin Stewart, whose brother Kian plays on the opposite flank.
The pacemen are sons of former Huddersfield Town star Marcus Stewart and are, arguably, the most potent strike force in northern rugby. Between them they have scored 47 tries this season.
Ed Barber
Brough’s team is also not short of power. It has a strong scrum and No8 Billy Hammond and hooker Harry Moore both feature in the list of top ten try scorers in the North West division.
The centre three quarter partners, Gaz Widdop and Ed Barber, are tackle breakers capable of punching holes in defences.
Both are vastly experienced former rugby league pros, the former having represented Great Britain and received 29 caps for England.
Fly-half Will Milner is the division’s leading points scorer and his reliable boot has kept the scoreboard ticking in every game played.
Having inflicted a heavy 62-29 defeat on Huddersfield in their opening game, Anselmians held top spot in the division until their away defeat at Stockport on March 21.
Hooker Joe Sanders is the leading try scorer in the league with 30 already under his belt.
Brough is under no illusions about the about the magnitude of the task facing his team and is well aware of the threat posed by Sanders.
He said: “Anselmians are quite physical and have a very good line-out. Their attacking maul has been really dominant in the league.
“I think the hooker has scored 25 or 30 tries in the last few seasons through the mauls, which is something we are going to have to counter.
“It won’t be as easy as it could have been having lost two of our best defenders, Liam Parfitt and Dickie Piper, but it’s something we will have to overcome. That’s why we have a squad, two lads will come in and fill their positions.
“Anselmians are a quality team, it should be a cracker and, hopefully, we will come out on the right side of it.”
The game kicks off at 3pm and a win will deliver a third Regional North title and a return to the National League (Level 4 in the rugby union pyramid) in which Huddersfield have played for 14 out of the last 18 seasons.
