Wharfedale fly under radar in pursuit of Leeds Tykes, Rotherham Titans and Sheffield Tigers

While not acting as malevolently, in recent weeks fourth-placed Wharfedale have been quietly creeping up the table in National League Two.

The Green Machine now stand within eight points of third-placed Sheffield RUFC and hold a game in hand over their South Yorkshire rivals, following the former’s dominant 39-19 victory against Hull Ionians last weekend and the latter’s tough 32-14 defeat to Rotherham Titans.

But Wharfedale player-coach Jake Armstrong insists his side are not getting drawn into any league position-based speculation ahead of their visit to eighth-placed Hull on Saturday.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “For us, the ambition is just to win the remaining matches and take it game by game. If we lose one along the way, we’ll look at what we can fix and improve on that.

“I think if we start focusing on where we want to finish, then it sort of takes away from the week in week out grind. If we win all those games, then we’ll be somewhere there or thereabouts – whether that’s third or fourth.”

Wharfedale have enjoyed three straight wins in February against Billingham, Otley, and Ionians, respectively.

Throughout that hot streak, the Greens have scored a massive 109 points with only 26 conceded – including a 41-0 triumph over arch-rivals Otley at Cross Green.

These attacking joys are pleasing to Armstrong, who believes such returns are due to hard work his side have been putting in on the training ground since the season’s earlier stages.

He added: “We’ve played some really good rugby and one of the takeaways for me is around the attack as it’s starting to look a little bit more attractive. We’ve started to score some more tries now which is good to see, albeit a lot of them are coming from having a good platform and set-piece.

“Early on this season, our attacking shape wasn’t that adventurous and we’ve evolved it and it’s starting to come to fruition now.

“It’s taken some time, but that’s the fruition of the work we’ve put in during training.”

Next up is a journey to Mike Umaga’s Hull. Despite sitting comfortably in mid-table, Armstrong is aware of the threats Saturday’s hosts pose.

He said: “We know they’ve got a couple of threats in the backs. I think Hull are synonymous with having a strong pack, so that’s a threat we’ll want to take away.”