WHARFEDALE will have a newcomer making his debut against Launceston at The Avenue tomorrow and rarely can a player have been thrown in at a deeper end, (writes Tony Simpson).

No 8 Ben Wade, originally of Morley, Yorkshire, the North and England Under 21s, Rotherham and latterly Hull Ionians has joined the club and finds himself pitched into the club's most crucial game for donkey's years.

Wade had been making his way back to full fitness at Ionians after a knee injury cut short his full-time career at Rotherham, but he still has aspirations to regain a place in the senior professional ranks and is stepping up with the Greens to prove himself at a higher level.

His track record at Rotherham confirms him to be a player with plenty of experience and no little success. He made 83 league appearances for the South Yorkshire side and in the process scored 31 tries.

The fact that one of the more recent of the 28year-old's scores came in the South of France in a famous victory over Perpignan in the European Shield underlines Wade's pedigree and his 6ft 3in, 15 stone frame should come in handy for what is certain to be a major test..

Victory for the Cornishmen tomorrow would not only give them a double of the Greens, but also leave the men from The Avenue needing to win three more games than their closest relegation rivals in their remaining matches to escape the drop. It is not a prospect anyone at Threshfield can think of with anything other than serious anxiety.

The game is, therefore, the proverbial four-pointer and the pre-match team-talk delivered by Messrs Harrison and Hartley should not need to contain too much by way of inspiration. The gravity of the situation is all too obvious.

There was a time when any team new to this level and making a first appearance at Threshfield would be no more than a lamb ready for butchering by people who know plenty about the process. Those days are long gone, as the Dalesmen's home record this season shows.

Apart from the debut for Wade, Wharfedale show one important change at scrum-half, where David Whitfield takes over from Matt Birch.

In a game where there is likely to be good deal of hand-to-hand battling off the back of the scrum and the tail of the lineout, Whitfield's superior size and strength, coupled with an abundance of grit, should be an important addition to the Wharfedale make-up.

Elsewhere the mix is as before, although important news of longer term casualties is that Hedley Verity has been given the 'all-clear' to have a run-out with the Foresters tomorrow and Sam Cotterell has been given one more week to rest a hamstring injury by way of a precaution.

Wharfedale: J Davies; C Eccleston, A Baggett, C Malherbe, G Johnston; A Hodgson, D Whitfield; P Peel, J Ogden, C Ingram, D Lister, A Capstick, P Evans, S Hargreaves, B Wade. Replacements: G Hindle, N Dickinson, R Maunder, A Lovatt.