Home comforts

RETURN: Leigh Deakin

It is the Wasps first home game for a month, during which time three away fixtures have brought a return of just two points. Their last two games, at Rochdale and Dewsbury, have both ended in defeat and though they have clung on to fifth spot in the Northern Ford Premiership, assistant coach John Paterson admits they have been riding their luck.

He said: "We have lost two games through under-achieving and the players know that. They'll be looking to pick things up against Whitehaven and get back on track."At the end of the day the other results went our way last week so we didn't slide down the table as much as we though we would. This is going to be a big game for us."

Paterson said they were considering a number of changes within the starting line-up, depending on how injured players responded at last night's training session.

Prop Mike Hagan is definitely out with an ankle injury while last night there were questions over the fitness of second row Matt Lambert who has been suffering from flu, prop Craig Booth who damaged a thumb at Rochdale and fellow front row forward Andy Precious who has a back problem.

Lea Tichener damaged an ankle in training in Tuesday but he was expected to play.

All those players, with the exception of Hagan, are in contention but Paterson stressed it was important they had the players available on the bench to come on should the injuries recur.

"Whitehaven are a big side so we're trying to juggle a bit and put a half-decent pack out," he explained.

The back-line had not been finalised yesterday and Paterson revealed there could be some surprising changes, prompted by the likely return of winger Leigh Deakin who was "flying" in training.

The coaches were last night toying with several ideas including switching John Strange to full-back, giving Jamie Benn a more prominent role and moving Darren Callaghan into the centre.

Whitehaven have been surrounded by uncertainty this week with reports that coach Kevin Tamati could be in line to take over at his former club Salford Reds following the sacking of Andy Gregory.

But the Kiwi, who joined 'Haven this season from Lancashire Lynx, yesterday ruled himself out of the job and pledged to honour his contract at the Recreation Ground.He is now concentrating on building on last week's comfortable, if not convincing, 40-16 victory over Bramley. They are still in the bottom half of the table but such is the competitive nature of the Premiership, victory tomorrow would leave them just three points behind the Wasps with a game in hand.

Tamati, however, has been disappointed with their inconsistent form and said: "We play well when we feel like it then ease up in other matches. York are a formidable side and we're not taking anything for granted, but we don't travel well. A lot of the players get homesickness when they have to go out of town!"

Although critical of their performance against Bramley, Tamati is sticking with the same side because he believes the players he has available to bring in are no better than the current 17.

"There is a lot of experience in the side but they haven't shown they have the mental toughness to grind out a series of victories," he said.

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