We are currently eighth in the league with 'Loo just one point behind by virtue of the 10 bonus points they've accrued. They have lost seven games - most by less than seven points.

Most importantly for both clubs the gap between those fighting relegation and the rest is growing with West 13 points clear of the third bottom club. All of the bottom five have difficult games this weekend so whoever wins at Brinkburn is likely to have an even more comfy cushion going into next week's break.

The clubs have met at Brinkburn before - notably during our first season here when we played out of the "youthy." 'Loo triumphed 16-11 back on January 8th 2000 - it was one of our better results that season.

For the record our team that day was: Jon Golightly, Anthony Elliott, Gavin Foreman, Martin Thompson, Matt Holland, James Lofthouse, Davy Tighe, Joel Brannighan, Mark Challinor, Brett Cullinane Chris Webb, Erik Anderson, David Dolan

Of course, Tighe and Cullinane will all be in action for West this weekend in one guise or other.

Michael Taylor who has been in fine form in recent weeks will be missing for the first team after picking up a knock during the week. Fortunately, Stephen Stockdale has completed his nuptials and will return at No 8 with  Craig Gilmour, who had a storming game in defence  last week on his West first team debut, retaining his place.

Ross Wood and Michael Hogan also tackled their socks off at Beverley but will have to give way to front row experience with the return of former skipper Anth Carr and Adam Coates.

The backs will be the same line-up which started at Beverley with Gav Robinson and Colin Cheslin no doubt waiting impatiently on the bench.

WEST: 15 Stu Waites, 14 Scott Butcher, 13 Greg Edwards, 12 Luke Watson, 11 Andrew Cheslin, 10 Gareth Foreman, 9  Andrew Foreman, 1  Anth Carr, 2  Liam Bailey, 3  Adam Coates, 4  Andrew Davies, 5  Gareth Eddy, 6  Craig Gimour 7 Dan Boatman [Capt],  8  Stephen Stockdale.   Reps: 16 Ross Wood, 17 Colin Cheslin, 18 Gav Robinson

WATERLOO: 15 Sean Colbourne, 14 James O’Brien, 13 Andrew Trotter, 12 Gary Lunt, 11 Guy Lavery, 10 Liam Reeve, 9  Alex Rees, 1  Sean Gibney, 2  Alix Croft, 3  Anthony Harvey, 4  Chris Wolfenden, 5  Sean Ruwers, 6  Ryan McKie, 7  Carl Nolan, 8  Martin Bell [Capt]. Reps: 16 Daniel Frost, 17 Dan Palmer, 18 Alex Reed.