RETURNING Wasp Shaun Austerfield goes straight back into York's team for Sunday's visit of Workington Town after rejecting a move to Doncaster Dragons.

Strong-running centre Austerfield quit York at the start of March after becoming disillusioned with the state of affairs at Huntington Stadium.

He was reportedly on the brink of joining Doncaster last week after training with the Dragons. But the 25-year-old has opted to return to York where he has spent the last three years.

"I just went training with them for a couple of days. I went to see how it was and suss it out but I preferred it at York," Austerfield told the Evening Press.

He is now looking forward to putting the last few weeks behind him and rediscovering his best form. He said: "I took a few weeks off because I got fed up but I need to give it one more go.

"I've got to prove to myself I can do it. I need to get to where I'm enjoying my rugby and playing how I was before. I've got to establish myself as a decent player.

"It's a really good atmosphere at York now. It's probably one of the best groups of lads I've played with, everybody's looking forward to playing whereas before there was always a lot of negativity."

Top-eight hopefuls Workington will provide York with a stiff test, but ultimately one they are capable of passing following much improved performances over the Easter weekend.

Coach Lee Crooks said: "We can go out there with confidence that we can get a result rather than trying to keep the score down.

"They are a workmanlike side, they are doing well in the league, but the advantage we've got is that they'll be playing the game on the back of a four-hour journey down here.

"We've worked on a couple of things in training this week and if we can put those things into place we can question their defence a bit more than we have done in the last couple of games. If we do that there's no reason why we can't get our first win for some time."

Rob Roberts switches from loose forward to stand-off in place of Mark Spears, who has a rib injury.

Austerfield comes in at centre, Ryan Hardy moves to the second row and Lee Bardauskas returns from injury at loose forward.

Workington had mixed results over the Easter holidays, beating Barrow but losing to close rivals Whitehaven.

Their captain and rugged forward Matt Sturm is ruled out with damaged ribs while there is also a doubt over full-back Lynton Stott (dead leg).

York: (probable) Matt Mulholland, Simon Wray, Craig Moore, Shaun Austerfield, Aaron Campbell, Rob Roberts, Danny Waite, Neil Harmon, Alan Pallister, Andy Hutchinson, Ryan Hardy, Mick Ramsden, Lee Bardauskas. Subs (from): Gareth Oulton, Paul Couch, Darren Crake, Mick Hagan, Nathan Pincher.

Workington: (from) Lynton Stott, Jonathan Heaney, Neil Frazer, Leigh Smith, Graeme Lewthwaite, Tane Manihera, Lee Allen, Hitro Okesene, Owen Williamson, Matt Tunstall, Jamie Beaumont, Anthony Samuel, Kevin Hetherington, Fata Sini, Lokeni Soveloi, Craig Rumney, Jamie Smith, John Allen.

Referee: Steve Addy (Huddersfield)

Updated: 11:32 Saturday, April 21, 2001