HE may have led his side to two successive league titles and taken them to a Twickenham cup final, but Rhys Morgan reckons last Saturday's win at Lymm was the best of his four-year reign.

The 20-17 victory, the Dalesmen's first at National League Three North level, brought an emotional response from their head of rugby.

"I must admit I had a tear in my eye at the end," said Morgan. "I was so proud of the way the boys dug deep after being humiliated the previous week when we lost 65-0 to a good Sheffield Tigers side.

"They showed real character because they had to cope with a lot of adversity and they never let their heads go down when they were 12-0 down. It was a great effort."

The adversity that Morgan referred to centred around having to field a makeshift second row combination of John Hutchinson and Jon Pickersgill and losing full back Ben Magee during the game with a rib injury.

Magee faces a spell on the sidelines which means the selectors will have to decide whether Joe Rowntree or Ryan Cooper will wear the No 15 shirt in Saturday's home game with Burnage.

Rowntree was switched to full back to allow Cooper to make his return to first team action at scrum half when Magee went off. Morgan said: "Both are scrum halfs who have also played full back.We will have to give it some thought."

Ilkley will be boosted by having two of their experienced second rows available again. Pete Small and James Spencer are likely to earn recalls, while Jonny Yale is expected to deputise again for Stevie Graham at hooker. The player-coach has a foot injury.