YORK RUFC head coach Lee Denham believes his side are strong enough to improve on their current eighth position in Yorkshire Division One, starting when Yarnbury visit Clifton Park tomorrow.

“I would like to think we can move up to fifth or sixth in the league from where we are now. We are playing well at the minute and other teams will be affected by the loss of the rugby league players from their squads.”

York had a great January, winning all four of their matches. They suffered a 31-10 setback last week at high fliers Bridlington but played well enough to take some positives from the final outcome.

Denham summed up his side’s performance: “Bridlington were a better team than us but we didn’t play badly, we held our shape but we didn’t make our collisions count.

“We are working hard on the things we learned and we will be ready to take them into this weekend’s game.”

Yarnbury had the better of York earlier in the season, taking a 39-26 victory in October.

“We would like to repay them for the defeat and have been working hard all week in training.”

The coach believes his side has made significant strides since the start of the season.

“We are a team under development, we have very good players but we are re-evaluating our form and the game shape we play.”

With two new coaches and up to 10 new players in the side it was always going to be a period of transition.

“We are turning the corner and are working hard, a lot harder now than earlier in the season when we wrapped them in cotton wool a bit.

“Now only the fittest survive and if you are not fit and you don’t make the contact you don’t make the team.”

It is a source of pride that the club are re-building from within, developing talented players from their own youth development programmes.

“At least 60 per cent of the first team squad have come through from the youth teams.

“I take my hat off to the very talented junior and youth coaches and I can’t give them enough praise for what they do for the club.”

“Almost half the first team that turned out against Bridlington had come through the ranks, including the front row, the backs and two scrum halves and two fly halves.”

The policy is beginning to pay dividends for the club at the national league level and it will be in evidence against Yarnbury.