YORK Acorn ARLC are set to have another training match against York City Knights - to help their bid for a second successive money-spinning Ladbrokes Challenge Cup run.

A similar behind-closed-doors session took place a year ago at Nestle Rowntree Park to assist both Acorn, who were then preparing for their cup second round tie against Sharlston Rovers, and the Knights, who had seen pre-season friendlies called off due to bad weather.

The Blue and Golds went on to beat Sharlston, with their reward memorably being a clash for real against the Knights in round three - when a 2,000-plus crowd turned out at Bootham Crescent to witness the pro team's 66-0 win.

Head coach Leigh Paul-Rientoul is now hoping for the same again in terms of reaching the third round, even if the chances of another all-York match-up are remote. They have been paired against the RAF in round one, with that tie to take place at Cranwell in Lincolnshire on Saturday, January 28.

"We're hopefully going to put a training session on against York, like last year," he said. "It was good for us to come up against those kind of standards and hopefully it can be again as we prepare for this season."

Acorn's National Conference League campaign does not start until March and Paul-Rientoul sees the early cup rounds as part of their pre-season preparations - albeit whereby results are still important.

They began training a month ago in the gym and started field sessions in the new year.

"This will our first game of the year," Paul-Rientoul explained of the RAF clash. "We've got a couple of friendlies lined up after that but it's our first run-out and in many respects we'll be treating it as pre-season.

"It gives us a chance to rebuild a little and try some of the things we're working on in training."

Of the draw he added: "A home tie would have been better but we're quite happy with it.

"Lewis Lord (Acorn player) played against them for his student side and said they put 40 points past them. I expect they'll be better than that, but then Fryston have got Normanton and West Hull meet Hull Dockers and I suspect ties like that will be more feisty than ours."

As regards reaching round three, when League One clubs enter, Paul-Rientoul joked: "If we get Toronto away, that'd be good.

"We'll take each game as it comes but if we can get to that third round it'd be great. The York game earned us £5-6,000 and that's a big boost for our club. Obviously we'd love to get something like that again."

On the planned training match, Knights boss James Ford said: "I've got a lot of respect for Leigh and York Acorn as a club. An opposed session is a really useful exercise for both teams.

"You can take the contact element out of it and make the ruck the standard five or six seconds so it's fair, and we can practise some of our shapes and tactics against opposition who don't know what we're trying to do - something you obviously can't do when you're running against team-mates."

He added: "We want to help Acorn as well as helping ourselves.

"Making York's teams stronger is good for the city and for the players themselves, so while we'll take a lot out of it I hope Acorn do as well. If it helps them to progress in the Challenge Cup, then that's great.

"It was beneficial last year and we took a lot from it. The facilities up there (at Nestle Rowntree Park) are outstanding and running 13 on 13 at this time of year there helps a team's development."