London Welsh v Cornish Pirates Preview

By Mark W-J
November 11 2010

Midway through the league season, London Welsh find themselves fourth in the table, ten points adrift of last week's conquerors, Worcester, and three behind this Sunday’s visitors, Cornish Pirates. Welsh will be looking to avenge the 23-3 defeat at the Mennaye in September, as Pirates are the only team to deny us even a losing bonus point thus far, and the only side to stop us from scoring a try.

So, is fourth place a true reflection of our season? The statistics show that we are joint top-try scorers (along with the Pirates) with 40 touchdowns in eleven games, and only Worcester can match our six try-bonus points. Our 68-22 win at Moseley is the biggest score in the division this season, and the biggest away win in the (admittedly brief) history of the Championship. Furthermore, we’ve got the joint-best record - along with second-placed Bedford - for tries conceded (fifteen), and along with the Blues are one of only two clubs not have conceded a try-bonus point: only Pirates can match the measly two bonus points conceded overall (losing bonus points for Nottingham and Doncaster). But it’s no use hiding behind statistics. The reality is that we’re currently the fourth best team in the Championship, a fact borne out by our record against the teams above us; played three, lost three. Worcester, Bedford and Pirates have all beaten one another, and we’re the only one of the top four to have lost to a team currently in the relegation places (Esher).

But it’s not all doom and gloom. This time last year we sat solidly in mid-table – joint-sixth place alongside Moseley, with 24 points from 11 games (including the five point deduction), thirteen worse than our current total. Ironically, with six win and five defeats our playing record mirrored that of the two teams immediately above us – Bedford and Pirates. At that stage we were already 25 points behind the unbeaten leaders, Exeter, yet with eight wins and a draw from the return fixtures – including victory over the Chiefs – we finished the season in third place, 26 points behind Exe and 30 adrift of Bristol. Although we’ve only gained one extra victory so far this year, we’ve also collected four more bonus points – with nine bonus points in the bag, we’ve already equalled our tally for all of last season.

Like us, the Pirates have a reputation for playing an expansive game, although only 55% (22 of 40) of their tries this season have come from the backs, compared to 85% (34 of 40) for the Welsh. Yet when Nottingham’s Alex Shaw crossed for his side’s only try in the meeting at Meadow Lane last Sunday, it was just the second time a forward had crossed for a try against the Pirates in the opening eleven rounds of fixtures. Six of the 18 tries they’ve conceded have come from opposition wingers; Josh Drauniniu, of course, has eleven of his own, with Liam Gibson, Dom Shabbo and Marland Yarde adding another dozen between them on the opposite flank. More worryingly, perhaps, for Welsh is the fact that Pirates have conceded only 60 points from penalties this season, fewer than any team except Esher – the problem for our neighbours being that they’ve conceded more tries (45) than any other side. We, of course, have to offset our parsimonious defence against our indiscipline – fewest tries conceded against most points from penalties (105).

Pirates’ full-back Rob Cook kicked another 21 points at Nottingham last weekend to move up to third in the overall charts on 142, just three behind James Arlidge, with a strike-rate of 75%. It’s the third time he’s scored over 20 points in a game this season, having collected 196 points last year, his first season at this level following two years at Nuneaton. Their top try-scorer is flanker Phil Burgess, with five, although only one of those has come away from home. Burgess is another player who has successfully stepped-up from the lower-leagues, having spent the last three years climbing the ranks with Loughborough Student, for whom he scored 30 tries in 41 appearances.

For the travelling followers, a fantastic weekend in the Duchy at the start of September was marred by a dire 80 minutes on the pitch – a performance for which Phil Greening later apologised to the fans. We’ve no doubt as to what this squad is capable of, but it’s been frustrating for players, coaches and supporters alike that we’ve seen only flashes of brilliance. After a soporific 75 minutes at Goldington Road we produced the best five minutes of rugby in the entire game, and Blues were desperately hanging on after two quick-fire tries. Likewise, many Worcester fans said after Sunday’s game that they wouldn’t have begrudged a Welsh victory following that fantastic second-half performance – just like at Bedford, they escaped courtesy of a Marcel Garvey interception. Yet Pirates will point to the 20 point margin in our first meeting just 10 weeks ago; they’ll point to the fact that Worcester beat Blues and Welsh away, yet they turned the Warriors over on their own patch. Make no mistake – they’re coming-up full of confidence, and we’ll need to put in that elusive 80 minute performance if we’re going to reclaim third place.

Posted by: The Dragons\\\' Den (IP Logged)

Date: 11/11/2010 09:16

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