Newent Rugby Club are looking to go again after the mid-season break as they prepare for a top-of-the-table clash against Silhillians on Saturday.

The long-time Regional 2 Midlands West leaders host the club immediately below them knowing that a win would go a long way towards confirming their position as title favourites.

Despite winning 11 of their 12 games, Newent have been pegged back in recent weeks and they go into Saturday’s game level on 47 points with both Silhillians and Stow-on-the-Wold.

Stow beat visitors Newent in a thriller at Oddington Road in mid-December – they won 26-19 with a last-gasp converted try – while Newent have also been deducted five points for failing to fulfil a fixture against Cheltenham at the beginning of last month.

The Forest of Dean club have played a game fewer than Silhillians and Stow, who have both lost three matches, so they remain in the driving seat and club president Paul Dando, who was one of the club’s founders back in 1970, remains optimistic about the second half of the season.

“We want to win the league title this season, we want to win promotion.” he told The Local Answer. “The boys are up for it, there’s a good spirit in the team, it’s a great place to be at the moment.

“It’s really disappointing to lose those five points, we were really riding high until it happened, it’s really annoying. It’s tough on the players.”

That game against Cheltenham should have been played on Saturday 2^nd December and has now been rescheduled for Saturday 20^th January with Dando confirming that the club would not be appealing the five-point deduction despite initially being keen to do so.

The return game between the clubs will take place at the Newlands on Saturday 22^nd March, the penultimate round of fixtures in the 12-strong division.

Fourth-placed Cheltenham, who host bottom-of-the-table Berkswell & Balsall on Saturday, are also pushing for promotion to Regional 1 Midlands. They trail the top three by five points but have a game in hand on Silhillians and Stow, who host eighth-place Shipston-on-Stour on Saturday.

Both Newent and Cheltenham are new to the Midlands Division in 2023/24, having been switched from the South West Division.

They were both in Regional 2 Severn last season, a season which saw Newent enjoy a strong second half to the campaign to finish fourth.

“We were unbeaten in the league after Christmas,” said Dando. “We’ve carried on where we left off last season.

“People say the Midlands Division is easier but it’s not. There are no weak teams, it’s the equivalent of the South West Division.”