Ilkley’s head of rugby Rhys Morgan says his players have an important score to settle as they face promoted Huddersfield YMCA at Stacks Field on Saturday.

The Dalesmen, who ran them close, have secured third place in Yorkshire One, but Morgan will be looking for one last performance from his players in the final game of the season.

“We’ve definitely got a score to settle,” he said, “If you look at the game we lost at their place when we shouldn’t have, it’s probably cost us promotion. This is a game I am desperate to win.”

His side will have to pick themselves up from a 14-13 defeat at North Ribblesdale, a side who are fast becoming somewhat of a bogey team.

“It was disappointing,” said Mor- gan, “We’ve been on a long journey this season, and one thing we’ve improved on is closing down difficult games. We didn’t do that on Saturday.

“The lads started throwing the ball around needlessly and, to be fair, I can understand why. We’ve got nothing to play for now and I can see why they would want to play more enterprising rugby, but I wanted to dispel that voodoo that North Ribb seem to have over us and so it was frustrating. We were naïve. The best team lost on Saturday.”

Whilst Ilkley’s third place finish is confirmed, Huddersfield are just three points behind table-topping Driffield, and will be firing on all cylinders in their quest to pip them to the title.

The home side will have to be on their mettle if they are to finish the season on a high, with a squad damaged by the start of the Aire-Wharfe cricket season.

Third place is a vast improvement on the comparative struggles of last season, but Morgan is quick to talk the idea that his side have overachieved.

“I actually think we have underachieved. If you look at some of the games we have thrown away, turn a couple of those games around and we would have pushed Huddersfield harder than we have. Saturday is an opportunity to show what we are made of.”

As the first team season draws to a close, it far from over for the club as a whole. The second team have qualified for the Aire Wharfe Cup semi-final, to be played next week, defeating Bradford and Bingley 24-19 on Tuesday.