They needed too, of course, as they spent most of the season looking certs for relegation. But a string of good results, including an unusual 6-3 victory here, saw them escape. Their last two games saw them put 40 points on Rochdale and Pocklington and they will be looking to continue where they left off.
Sheff reacted to their bad form by successfully changing their coaching set-up, with veteran hooker Jason Soden moving from coaching the third team to becoming Director of Rugby. Exactly the same has happened at Brinkburn with Graeme Southern taking over from Kevan Oliphant as DoR.
The difference being that Olly voluntarily stepped down so he could concentrate his considerable talents on helping raise funds. He has already delivered a new shirt sponsor in S.G. Petch. [Skipper Dan Boatman is modelling the new kit]. Petch's involvement follows a tremendous three year contribution from CarPhone Warehouse and we will always be grateful for their support.
"Sos" is now working hard on ensuring all our senior teams have numbers and are competitive, and his first masterstroke was in persuading Head Coach Iain Dixon to stay on even though he now works in Leeds. Fortunately, the vastly experienced Jamie Connolly is able to take some of the midweek training sessions.
It appears that both West and Sheffield now have the same philosophy in bringing on our own players.
The feature of pre-season at Brinkburn has been the number of "old" faces who have turned up and who are looking good. Joe Rafferty, Jordan Baggs and Gary Jackson prominent amongst them as are the Colts players who turned up in numbers this week with the prospect of their first game against Darlington on Saturday [Brinkburn k.o. 1.30].
There are two signings this season although neither can be described as new. Eighteen year old Luke Chapman has returned from a brief sojourn at Billingham, and has already featured in the warm-up games, while 34 year old Andrew Foreman is back as he seeks to continue to find new challenges. After spending most of his career at scrum half he's anxious to play out wider.
There will be plenty of opportunities for the up and coming talent mainly thanks to injuries. Owen Bennett and Andrew Dixon are both recovering from operations following eye injuries, while both Ian Pinchen and Liam Bailey have shoulder problems.
"Pinhead" has a steroid injection next week, which should cure his nagging problem, but the mercurial Bailey is still waiting for a scan on his injury.
The other absentee from last season is Jonny Boatman. Fortunately, Alex Barker has taken the shirt and has put in a number of storming performances in pre-season.
And, as ever, there are a few regulars who have things like family weddings to attend. Michael Hogan will be missing and so will Scott Butcher - the scorer of four tries last week.
So it's a new look West team with Joe Rafferty earning a well deservedd start, after putting the effort into training, and youngsters Nathan Wales and Luke Chapman on the bench. Zac Southern continues at fly half after a couple of impressive pre-season games with Stu Waites at full back. Matt Tyers and Luke Mallinson are on the wings.
West: Stu Waites, Matt Tyers, Andrew Cheslin, Peter Youll, Luke Mallinson, Zac Southern, Ryan Painter, Jack Angus, Andrew Rollins, Adam Coates, Joe Rafferty, Chris Atkins, Alex Barker, Dan Boatman [capt], Sam Miller. Reps: Luke Chapman, Darren Thomas.