national 2 south status

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   hi all.....i posted a thread such as this for several years now.....and to be fair it seemed to be fairly well received.  with 100's of posts and thousands of views.  that said, it seems to me that R-M traffic in general is much down this year and so, if there is no interest, we can always just close it.
so.....where is our league this year ?  Very strong again i think and again, with some early indications of how things might end up.  My opinions.....

starting at the bottom.....it seems evident that both Westcliff and Barum are, quite literally, out of their league.
Barum seem a bit of a yoyo side.....too good for the SW league but well short of the requirements for survival in the grinder of Nat2s.  

I confess i was also thinking that the last relegation place (forgetting the new league structure next year) would be decided between Rochford and Hinckley, but both have shown significant improvement already and might yet drag others into the struggle against 14th place.  also confess to see the City side in their current situation, but they, alongside OA's, another team with relatively recent Nat1 provenance, are struggling so far.

At the top......well i thought the Choppers should and would have won the league last year, and i fully expect them to make amends in this one.  they are an outstanding team unit.....withe whole being greater than the sum of the component parts,,,,,very well done to the coaching team.  the pack is exceptional and they also have the benefit of the best half back partnership (imo) in Oulton and Honey.  the former a prolific tryscorer as well and the latter the best fly half in our leagu and maybe the one above.  i was surprised and perhaps, quite pleased, to see him still at the Recreation ground this year.....i thought he would go to Pirates or even Exeter.
I had thought too, that Clifton with their extensive Bristol DR cohort, might challenge them, and i guess they may yet do so. bit\ut two early defeats have set them back.  The horrible stuffing from Choppers is a definite setback.
Esher too, had clear ambitions for this year and may yet improve, but early results would seem to indicate that they have not (yet at least) got enough.j

perhaps the two over achievers at this early stage would be Dings.....who seem to have an excellent pack, and but for a few points in a couple of games would be much higher.......and my lot.

The Raiders.....well....i confess that after we lost several of our better players to more monied teams, i was worried about how we might stay out of the relegation zone this year.
our new management team and coaching staff seem to have done an outstanding job and we have recruited very well.
As ever, we are showing ourselves to be a tryscoring team.  from what i have seen so far, our pack and particularly our set piece, are not consistently good enough to win this league.  That said....we are still missing some incredibly impactful players from our back line and already have at least 7 or 8 out injured.  i think that with luck on that front we could get even stronger.

i am hoping we will make top four

good luck to all with injuries and i also hope that the chaps at the bottom at the mo can turn it around.  great league as ever.

ooh.....forgot the bloo%y Hawks.  they look dangerous too.....another very good pack.  hope they get relegated though  