As much as Pete Lucock at Leeds Tykes and Antony Posa at Sheffield RUFC will tell you there’s a lot of rugby to be played beyond today’s meeting of the Yorkshire rivals, there is no question the battle between National Two North’s top two is a significant one.

The White Rose duo have set a relentless pace throughout the season and while this game will not decide who takes the sole promotion spot up to National One come season’s end, it will give the victors a psychological advantage.

Leeds go into a game they host on top having amassed 85 points from their 17 wins and one defeat. Sheffield have matched that record but are one point behind having collected one fewer bonus point.

Lymm in third have lost twice and cannot be discounted, but seeing two Yorkshire names at the top of the regionalised fourth tier draws parallels with last season, when Rotherham trailed Leeds all year before beating them and overhauling them in the final month.

Battle lines: Sheffield’s Alex Fawdry wins a lineout against Leeds Tykes the last time the two met in October. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

placeholder image — Battle lines: Sheffield’s Alex Fawdry wins a lineout against Leeds Tykes the last time the two met in October. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

“One hundred per cent, the scars are still there for me, and for the boys as well,” says Lucock, an academy graduate and long-time player at Leeds who stepped up into the role of head coach at the end of that season. “If we hadn’t learned anything from last year we’d have been naive. We probably did a couple of things wrong. You’ve got to take that hurt on.”

The two clubs meet at very different points in their journey. Leeds are rebuilding after the collapse of Yorkshire Carnegie nearly half a decade ago. They have rebranded as the Tykes and bottomed out in the fourth tier with the aim of slowly, carefully, climbing their way back up.

Sheffield have never known it so good. Before Posa took over they had never lasted more than a season at this level, but after finishing a distant third last year, they have kicked on in year three.

“Getting a little bit of vertigo,” laughs Posa, their colourful New Zealand-born director of rugby.

Dom Parsons of Sheffield RUFC tries to stop Charlie Venables of Leeds Tykes. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

“The boys, this group, are loving their rugby and we’re playing some bloody good stuff at times.”

Posa’s mantra this season is for the Abbeydale club to enjoy their time at the top, but as the wins have racked up the mentality has changed into realising there is an opportunity in front of them that must be seized.

“Last Saturday we set a club record 11th straight victory and nobody said a word about it, not a whisper,” he says. “That’s super healthy, it shows the change in our mentality. We’ve half joked about the P word and there’s talk of a fear that we can’t go up to Nat One, what my group have done is we don’t want to lose.

“Our message this week is we have a chance to win the league, we’ve put in a lot of hard work to get us into this position so let’s give it heaps.”

The pressure, says Posa, is on Leeds, and he points to injuries beginning to take their toll on Sheffield, while Leeds are well resourced.

Lucock does not disagree. “It’s about peaking at the right times and ensuring if we do have injuries, people can come in and hit the ground running,” says the 32-year-old. “We have definitely relied on a squad this year, which for me as a coach is encouraging to have people waiting in the wings for their shot.”

Leeds won 13-12 at Sheffield in October. “We had a good win up there, albeit not playing very well,” says Lucock, to which Posa replies: “Boy do I remember that one. 12-10 up, kicked a penalty to the corner, messed up our usually impeccable lineout and gave Leeds an easy exit.”

Maintaining composure might be today’s key ingredient, something both coaches would agree on.