Otley have suffered a double blow after their curate's egg performance last weekend against Westcombe Park.

Flanker James Tiffany dislocated a shoulder and will be out for the rest of the season, while No 8 Matt Stockdale tore a shoulder joint and is likely to be out for between eight and 12 weeks.

Otley coach Mark Luffman said: "It's a huge blow because both of them have been playing really well and are in the Otley mould.

"James has injured the same shoulder that he had an operation on in the summer, while Matt's is a Grade Three tear."

Luffman added: "We can cover one of the places through our second-row trio of Howard Parr, Richard Snowball and Paul Williams but we might have to look elsewhere for the other vacancy.

"However, we hope that Nathan Bland is coming back to fitness after his knee ligament injury and will provide us with some cover while Dan Hyde is still suspended."

Otley will also be without fly half Adam Greendale as he has been training all week with the England Under-20 squad. But it is anticipated that Irish international Guy Easterby will be available from next weekend after his loan spell with Leinster to cover the Heineken Cup.

Luffman reckoned the 46-8 margin over Westcombe Park last weekend was about right, although even he can't have predicted that score with about 15 minutes remaining.

He said: "We were only leading 15-8 then but Park had been doing a lot of defending and just tired as we ran in five tries in 14 minutes. Maybe we should have been more clinical earlier in the match."

On Saturday, National League two leaders Otley are at basement club Halifax.

But Luffman is preparing his troops for a battle, saying: "They are fighting for their lives and gave a reasonable account of themselves at Southend last week, which is a difficult place to go.

"Halifax have some good players and when you add into the mix that it is a local derby then I'm expecting a tough contest."