Tinker and Jonny have been cornerstones of the unbeaten league run and their services will be invaluable as we face the tricky league trip to Pontefract, who scored five tries at our arch rivals Aspatria last week, and then Aspatria themselves at Brinkburn on the last Saturday of the month.

If Tim Sawyer had wanted to rest more players his chances were limited by interesting fixtures for both the Stags and the "3Ams".

The Stags are at Penrith where they will be looking to turn promise into points. A weakened Stags surprised themselves by running hot favourites Blaydon close a couple of weeks ago, but then suffered cry-offs by Darlington and Carlisle IIs.

With the likes of Peter Hodgson, Neil Howe and Colin Cheslin all unavailable, for one reason or another, our backs resources are a bit stretched across three teams.

So, apart from Davy Tighe being given a chance to return to match fitness, the backs will be unchanged against Lymm [kick off 3.00].

They certainly clicked against Carlisle last week running in no less than ten tries between them - including a hat trick for powerful new boy Rob Thorn.

The front five will also be the same as last week, but in the back row Carl Miller partners Dan Boatman with the ever improving Dave Garside at No 8.

The Intermediate Cup allows four replacements and Phil Wallis, Henry Tones and Ryan Phillips will be looking to get on and make an impression.

A total of 78 Level 6 clubs across the country will be in the first round with seeded teams from Level 5 [North One etc] joining in the next round. The prize is a Twickenham final and some fixtures towards the end of the season. Failure in cups, as we found out last season, results in some empty Saturdays in the spring.

Our visitors from Cheshire are currently fourth in North 2 West having lost only one game at home to second placed Stockport. Last season they were runners-up with a play-off final trip to Sheffield Tigers, who had been beaten at Brinkburn the previous week. However, Tigers on their own patch are a different matter and they ran out easy winners 50-10 to book their place in North One.

West 15 Gavin Painter 14 Andrew Hare 13 Rob Thorn 12 Greg Edwards 11 Darren Thomas 10 Paul Moss 9 Davy Tighe 1 Anth Carr [capt] 2 Andrew Dixon 3 Carl Robinson 4 Tom Dixon 5 Andrew Davies 6 Carl Miller 7 Dan Boatman 8 Dave Garside 16 Ryan Phillips 17 Henry Tones 18 Paul Williamson 19 Phil Wallis

Lymm 15 D Williamson 14 M Barnes-Smith 13 T Bray 12 A Fletcher [capt] 11 J Johnson 10 D Naylor 9 C Kinsey 1 C Naylor 2 N Girdlestone 3 K Broadbent 4 J Warrington 5 O Higginson 6 A Williamson 7 J Ashall 8 M Sutton 16 Z Lythgoe 17 J Cundick 18 A Rockey 19 G Barry