The families that play sport together stay together, so York Knights’ upcoming star Danny Ratcliffe explains to The Press Knights reporter PETER MARTINI.

NIGEL CLOUGH played football under famous dad Brian at Nottingham Forest, Frank Lampard did likewise for Uncle Harry Redknapp at West Ham, and in cricket Mickey Stewart coached his lad, Alec, at Surrey.

Indeed there have been several family combinations in the coaching and playing departments across sport – football’s Kenny and Paul Dalglish, Johann and Jordi Cruyff, and the great Italy pairing of Cesare and Paolo Maldini are others that spring readily to mind.

But York City Knights can in some ways top most of them, as they have not one but two such kinships in the ranks.

Player-boss Paul March leads a team comprising his twin brother David, of course, while young full-back Danny Ratcliffe also plays under his uncle, director of rugby James Ratcliffe.

It’s quite common for the sons and nephews in such circumstances to claim it can be harder to win a place in the team, just to avoid accusations of family prejudice.

Ratcliffe junior, though, sees it a slightly different way – he strives to make such accusations redundant, as he explained to The Press.

“It just makes you want to perform better in training and in games, so it doesn’t look like he is taking my side,” he said.

“In a way it makes it harder because I don’t want people to think, ‘Well, James is his uncle so he’s going to get in the team every week.’ “But that makes me want to perform well and prove I’m in there on merit rather than family favours.”

Young Ratcliffe remains pretty sure, however, that there is no bias where his uncle is concerned – not least because of the camaraderie and fraternity throughout the entire Knights squad.

He added: “I think he’s the same with me as he is with everybody else. We’re all mates there. We all treat each other as mates. It’s the same for me as it is for everybody, and that’s good.”

It’s of little doubt, however, that the younger Ratlciffe – who turned 22 on Saturday – got into the sport thanks to his family. Rugby league runs in the Ratcliffe blood.

“I started playing for my local club Thornhill Trojans when I was four,” said Ratcliffe, who still lives in the Heavy Woollen village.

“Rugby league has always been a big thing for me – it’s in the family. For a start, my dad and his two brothers have always played rugby league.”

Those three – dad Gordon, who is the oldest of the trio, Neil, the middle brother, and James, the youngest – all played in the same team for leading amateur outfit Thornhill, with James making his way up the coaching ladder via the Trojans, followed by Dewsbury Rams and now the Knights.

But it’s not just the Ratcliffe side of the family that loves the oval ball. Indeed, uncles on his mum’s side have played at an even higher level.

One is David Smith, who starred for Wakefield, Leeds and Hull KR, and who still jointly holds the most tries in a season record for the Wildcats, with 38 in 1973-74. His brother, Andrew Smith, played for Keighley.

Ratcliffe junior, a driver by trade, for recycling and waste management company Sita UK, has also been tipped by some to reach the top tier, just like his uncle David – and follow former Knights full-back Matt Blaymire, now with Wakefield, in making a successful step up to the full-time arena.

Like Blaymire, who started out in Wakefield’s junior set-up before making his way back to Belle Vue via the Knights, Ratcliffe junior’s first taste of the professional life was also with the Wildcats’ academy.

He spent a year there, then had a year in Dewsbury’s under-21s, before following his uncle James from the Rams to Huntington Stadium ahead of the 2008 season. Ratcliffe senior had been academy boss and part of the backroom team at Tetley’s Stadium.

Said his nephew: “I joined Wakefield aged 18 and Dewsbury Rams at 19. My uncle coached me at Dewsbury and he improved my game a lot.

“The main reason I came to York was to get first-team games and progress my career, and I have progressed under him.

“I missed only one game last year and I’ve definitely improved. I’ve loved it here as well. The main reason I re-signed for 2009 was because the lads are great. They all look out for each other and play for each other on the field, and it’s a good laugh off the field. It’s a really good place to be at the moment – and the fact we’re winning helps.

“It’s a team going places. At the back end of last year we put a good run together and just missed out on the play-offs.

“Everybody has got stuck in this pre-season and we’ve started well. The goal now is automatic promotion.”