Mid-term report.
Last hurrah.
By Wildwillie
October 11 2016
The sixth round of the Championship season has just been completed. We now have a couple of weeks of cup rugby before the league recommences in late October. This gives us a good opportunity to take stock of the season so far and look forwards to the run in to Christmas.
The stats do not lie. Played 6 won 6. The lads are second in the table , a point behind pace-setters London Irish and 10 points ahead of 3rd placed Doncaster Knights:
W D L F A BP Pts.
London Irish 6 0 0 150 55 5 29
Yorkshire Carnegie 6 0 0 190 137 4 28
Doncaster Knights 4 0 2 152 118 2 18
Cornish Pirates 3 1 2 160 137 4 18
The perfectionists among us will be lamenting the 2 missed try-bonus points and afficionados of the drift defence might well ask why we are, on average, conceding 3 tries per game. That not withstanding there have been a number of improvements in our performance, week on week, which have brought us to where we are now.
The pack has been formidable. Rob O'Donnell has scored 5 tries. Lewis Boyce has slotted into the frontrow like a seasoned veteran. Asbo is playing like a colt. Dean Schofield, in his last season of professional rugby, has looked regalvanised and along with Matt Smith and Dicky Beck has turned our lineout into a lethal weapon. Competition for backrow shirts has never been fiercer. One injury to Mayhew has let in Andy Saull at 7 and he is enjoying his best spell for us.
Our backs have also started to cut loose. We always knew that Jonah is a class act. He is back to his best at the moment despite relinquishing the 15 shirt to Stevie McColl who has also made a big impact since he returned north from Gloucester. For me the most impressive newbie has been Alex Davies. His passes are delivered crisply and in time to let Joe Ford assess what is in front of him before calling the play. Joe has returned a better player with more game managing skills than when he left for Sale. On Sunday just before half time he asked the ref if there was time for a lineout before launching the penalty into the corner. The forwards then got the points so that we went in ahead after being bested in the first 40 minutes. His goal kicking was also 100% on Sunday.
We go into the cup games next weekend. Players who have not had a break will get one. Players who have not had a chance of a game should also get one. By the time we play Jersey under the lights on the 28th we should be well refreshed and a good result against the Reds, who have lost their last 4 games will set us up nicely for the tussle at the Madstad the following weekend.
I have to admit to being quite critical of Bryan Redpath last season. What has changed to improve my opinion? Well first of all the players who he has brought in this season have improved our squad. Secondly he has given the squad the chance to gel so we have missed all the chopping and changing that was a hallmark of team selection last season. We are also enjoying the benefits of having a decent forwards coach and the return of J-Lo has started to bring improvements to our attack.
So the mid-term assessment is: Good progress has been made and we will need to continue to improve if we are to make a serious challenge for promotion after Christmas.
Keep up the good work lads!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:10:29:09:44:31 by Gelbel.
I wouldn't be surprised if the 14 team ring fenced Premiership rumour raised its ugly head again sometime soon.
Agree with the above comment from Leemingtyke. There has been a lot of talk recently about the gap between premiership (real pro) and the rest of rugby in terms of finance, fitness and injury issues.
