Round 4 Fixtures, Predictions & News

Pool A

The dreaded cup completion returns. Predictions become pot luck as no one knows which sides will take these games more seriously than a preseason warm up with coaches experimenting with players. The only way to set about this is to treat the fixtures as league fixtures, so, on that basis:

Nottingham 0-4 Hartpury. Hartpury are in a rich vein of form and should register the win here.
Jersey 5-2 Ealing. Recent form sees me abandoning my usual 5-0 prediction in Ealing’s favour.
Bedford 5-0 London Scottish. Bedford at Goldington Road, back from the harsh northern conditions, should pull away from LS as the second half progresses.
Coventry 5-0 Doncaster. Coventry are currently playing very well, home and away.
Cornish Pirates 5-0 Richmond. It could be a very long day for Richmond.
Ampthill 5-2 Caldy. The battle of the so called minions. And although Caldy are on a dream run, Ampthill’s form is also growing each week. The As to win a high scoring game.

Pool A

Pool A
Nottingham 5 - 0 Hartpury … Nottingham need something to get their season going again and a home tie in the cup be just what they need.
Jersey 4 - 1 Trailfinders … Ealing have a few players that they may need to rest as well as a few injury concerns. Jersey are in a similar boat, but the desire to push for a semi final spot and the need to break their voodoo run against ET may be the difference. It will be tight though.

Pool B
Bedford 5 - 0 London Scottish … I would be surprised if the PL outfits will be too keen to loan players out for this competition. Training session for the Blues backs.
Cov 5 - 0 Donny … Knights won’t like the plastic. Comfortable home win.

Pool C
CP 5 - 0 Richmond … A very long trip for Mond. This may suit the Pirates youngsters.
Ampthill 5 - 2 Caldy … Barbarian rugby on show in this game. Ampthill to win it by a score in a 70 point thriller

Pool A

Just inquiring into how reliant Bedford are on the Saints boys,  I seem to remember a year or so ago they had about 10 dr/loans announced 

Edited by KnightsBoy - 02 Feb 2023 at 16:07

Nottingham 5 - 2 Hartpury

Jersey taking this one seriously, as you’d expect. Apart from the Ealing rivalry, they know that defeat would mean that any chance of making it to the semi final stage would be in the hands of others.
Could be a stormer this.

Ealing Trailfinders team to face Jersey Reds:

Quite a strong side here, with Tizanno, De Wee (carded) and Holmes being the only nailed on starters sitting this one out. I like seeing JCR back in the squad, and Alun Walker returns from a short term loan with Newcastle to pack down at Hooker.  I honestly thought that Ealing might be best served by tanking the cup and getting healthy - last week they had to bring a Hooker who was injured back onto the field after the replacement was even more badly injured, and we have three fly halves in the squad due to lack of centres.

15. Max Bodilly

14. Nathan Earle

13. Reuben Bird-Tulloch

12. Peter Robb

11. James Cordy-Redden

10. Craig Willis

9. Craig Hampson

1. James Gibbons

2. Alun Walker

3. George Davis

4. Will Montgomery

5. Simon Linsell

6. Rob Farrar (C)

7. Simon Uzokwe

8. David Douglas Bridge

Replacements:

16. Kevin O’Byrne

17. Will Davis

18. Ross Kane

19. Ollie Newman

20. Jack Digby

21. Jordan Burns

22. Dan Lancaster

23. Steven Shingler

Cherub wrote: "Predictions become pot luck as no one knows which sides will take these games more seriously than a preseason warm up with coaches experimenting with players" This is what I said before making my predictions for this week's cup games. Looking at both the Ampthill and Caldy websites, I see both sides are making ELEVEN changes from last week's sides. I know many of you disagree with my view of this cup competition, but I personally think it sucks and merely serves as a fixture filler because there are too few teams in this league.

I don’t disagree with your sentiment Cherub, but think that it is more about risk/reward.
All teams will take the games seriously as the players have too much pride not to.
However, squads will be rotated for a number of reasons, but on the whole, if you go out of the cup, then there is always next season. If you are relegated because of a string of injuries caused by over playing or directly from said cup games, well that is a very bitter pill to swallow.
Some teams want to win this competition and I include my side in this as well as our opponents tomorrow. I am in no position to speak for the other clubs.
I still think that there will be some serious entertainment out there this week, regardless of who makes the starting XV’s