NEIL Mitchell has literally spelt out the importance of Saturday’s trip to Hull Ionians to Stourbridge RFC’s players.

Victory on Humberside over their title rivals would leave the Saxons, who hold an eight point advantage but have played a game more, with one hand firmly on the National Two North trophy.

But a heavy defeat would hand initiative to the hosts and set up a nerve-jangling final few weeks of the season.

And director of rugby Mitchell is keeping things simple, having given his players a list with all possible title permutations so they understand fully how much is riding on the next 80 minutes.

Mitchell said: “On Tuesday night at training the players were given two sheets of paper, titled route one and route two.

“Route one is what happens if we win on Saturday, we will have a mimumum six point lead with three to play.

“Route two is what happens if we lose, that could involved a play-off and it gets very complicated.

“We don’t even want to contemplate route two.”

The Saxons could still keep destiny of the title in their own hands with a defeat but they would need to pick up a losing bonus point and restrict the hosts to less than four tries.

Mitchell is hoping it does not come to that.

He said: “We want to win the game and get things sorted.

“Any way you look at it things are literally all on this game.

“They have still got to play Darlington Mowden Park who are the next best team in the division, along with Sheffield and Caldy.

“That’s a hard run but you would think that if they beat us it would give them an extra spring.

“If we win it will deflate them and you would fancy us to see things out from there.”

Stour warmed up for the vital clash with a clinical 39-0 beating of Sheffield Tigers at Stourton Park last Saturday.

Mitchell has a full squad to choose from, with Stefan Cooksammy now back at full fitness.

He said: “To beat a good side like Sheffield without them scoring is really something.

“It was the perfect preparation for Saturday.”