Club also delighted with Sporthouse tie-up.

Recent weather conditions may have forced several sides to cancel training sessions, but that’s not been the case for Barking Rugby Club after they announced a tie-up with Sporthouse heading into their final eight London One North games of the season.

The two have joined forces, and the Gale Street side used the Mayesbrook Park facility on Thursday when temperatures plummeted to minus four degrees.

Having the venue right on the doorstep is a godsend for head coach Steve Wagstaff.

“It’s something a little different to what we normally do, but we were able to get a good session out of it, working on several aspects,” said Wagstaff.

“Temperatures were minus four on the day and it is an enormous help to have something like that close to where we are.

“You could use the gym facility as well and the people at Sporthouse are fantastic with us.”

The wet weather did force Barking’s match at Letchworth Garden City to be called off at 10.30am on Saturday – the only fixture postponed at that level.

They try again on Saturday and, although Barking will be minus a couple of players due to the date originally being a blank weekend, Wagstaff is after a response from his side after their disappointing 23-17 home loss to Luton at the end of January.

“It wasn’t ideal having it off and was the only one postponed, which is frustrating,” added Wagstaff.

“But it’s one of those things and we will go again this weekend.

“A couple of players are unavailable because it was supposed to be a blank weekend, but we have got cover.

“I thought we were fortunate to beat them in the reverse fixture (25-22), but they are a very good and well organised side.

“We went fromhaving our best performance of the season against Eton Manor to our worst.

“They know we were not good against Luton and the captain Jordan Saunders certainly ripped into them.

“We need to give a reaction and get back to what the performance was like against Eton Manor.”

Barking sit sixth in the table going into the game and Wagstaff knows they have to develop the ability to grind out wins.

“You look at Eton Manor and like they did against us, they ground out the victory. We need to add that aspect to our game,” he said.