Week 19 results round up with week 20 - 21st January preview
By Tom Little.
January 15 2012
Week 19 results round up with week 20 - 21st January previews including Coventry Rugby v Barking.
Week 19 results 14th January
Barking 12 48 Macclesfield
Blaydon postponed Coventry
Cambridge 23 21 Tynedale
Cinderford 27 24 Ealing Tfs
Jersey 20 18 Rosslyn Park
Sedgley Park 13 29 Fylde
Stourbridge 17 18 BirminghamSolihull
Wharfedale 31 30 Blackheath
Game of the round Jersey against Rosslyn Park, saw the islanders through with a hard fought and narrow victory before a record home crowd of 3648, this puts Jersey in as leaders with Rosslyn Park falling to 3rd, as a Fylde win over Sedgley Park takes them into 2nd place.
Birmingham Solihull with Mark Woodrow getting 6 penalties defeat fellow strugglers Stourbridge, which together with Barking’s heavy loss at home to Macclesfield starts to put daylight between the bottom three sides over the mid table teams. Cinderford , with their 3rd win in a row maintain their excellent form with a home win over previous pace setters Ealing, who have now only won once in 7 games and are now back in 4th place just 3 points ahead of another form team Macclesfield.
The top 5 sides of Jersey, Fylde, Rosslyn Park, Ealing and Macclesfield are now pulling away from the chasing pack led by Blackheath.
Week 20 fixtures 21st January with previews
Birmingham Solihull v SedgleyPark
Blackheath v Stourbridge
Coventry v Barking
Ealing Tfs v Wharfedale
Fylde v Blaydon
Jersey v Cinderford
Macclesfield v Cambridge
RosslynPark v Tynedale
This week sees all the top 6 sides with home ties and in theory all should win, but some of the lower placed teams have a habit of ripping up the form book, so anything may happen. Cinderford, after three straight wins and under the influence of Phil Vickery, may surprise everyone by doing well at Jersey, hoping to be the first side to complete the double over the favourites.
Ealing after only 1 win in 7, cannot take their visitors Wharfedale too lightly, Macclesfield on the other hand after 7 wins out of 8 should dispose ofCambridge.RosslynParkwith only last week’s close loss toJerseyspoiling a run of 8 successive winning games should beat Tynedale.
The relegation zone sees Barking, after 9 straight losses face the difficult visit to Coventry, whilst Stourbridge might fancy beating a misfiring Blackheath side after their 3 losses in a row.
Birmingham Solihull, after 3 wins on the trot and with Mark Woodrow in fine goal kicking form , face another winnable game at home to Sedgley Park putting even more pressure on those teams in mid table looking over their shoulder.
Coventry Rugby v Barking preview
This Saturday 21st January, at home at the Butts Park Arena, kick off3pm, sees Coventry Rugby face bottom side Barking, in a crucial game for both teams. After Coventry’s wasted journey up north last Saturday they will be looking to reverse their record of 4 losses in a row, whilst Barking after 9 straight losses will be looking to kick start their escape plan.
Last season Barking were the surprise team, only their defeat by London Scottish in the last game of the season saw LS promoted rather than them. Since then they have lost the majority of their squad, mainly to London Scottish as well as their coaching staff. There has been further upheaval with the newly appointed coaches also going.
So far this season they have only won 4 games, with home wins over Blaydon, Birmingham Solihull, and an excellent one over Ealing, even more impressive was their only away victory at 2nd placed Fylde 31-18, so this shows that Coventry cannot take them too lightly. Last week Barking suffered a heavy reverse at home by the improving Macclesfield 12-48.
Coventry, earlier in the season won away at Gorsebrook 22-34 , after being well on top, 2 late tries to Barking somewhat distorting the scoreline, but Coventry have to be vary of Barking’s strong running backs Alex Dodge and Andrew Henderson..
After another excellent home crowd against Sedgley Park, Coventry Rugby needs this continued support to get their season back on track, to start climbing back up the league table and in the process complete their first double of the season.
Tom Little
Coventry Rugby press office
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
woods, it's in the hipflask! (Steve Emms)
' COME ON COV '
