national 2 south status

i do hope that Lions get to complete their fixture list......they have had an excellent season and have recorded many good wins.  That said.....I echo 999 in that I think they will find it hard to push into the top 4.  Not impossible of course.....just very difficult given the standard of opposition, week in week out.

Hi Darth, it was a game of attrition at Barn Elms..first half we played well enough but were turned over or knocked on a few times which too often meant we lost attacking positions..a yellow card right at the end of the half passed the advantage to Esher at halftime 6-8. There was a strong wind in our favour too in that first period which didn’t use well enough. In the second half Esher dominated possession (at least 70% I would say) and we were pinned in our own half for much of the time. It was a testament to our defence that we only conceded one try, despite them being camped on our line for much of the last quarter.

Crazy game at The Haberden today...OA's outscoring Bury 7 tries to 5 but Reed's immaculate display with the boot was the difference. Dan Watt had a conversion to win the match but missed, however the Bury players were unsporstamnlike in their attempted charge down and so the kick was retaken but again, agonisingly slid wide.  Both defence coaches will be having kittens. Bury shaded the set piece but the two wingers for OA's were outstanding.  4on the bounce for Bury now, but a big test next week vs Lions who put them to the sword earlier in the season.

We spoke to the league this week just to get clarity on May fixtures as a few are going in there. As things stand rules same as before - games in May can be voided if both teams agree and has no impact on any form of promotion/relegation/level transfer (which this year it could do with the league split depending on the formulas they use). League have to agree to the void but have said no reason they wouldnt if all of the above criteria are met. A lot if it will come down to what do clubs feel they may lose out on by not having a home game I would guess, and also their relationship with their CB as it will take players out of county teams

Some clubs have preferred to host a County match over a dead rubber.

Well done to Westcliff, whose persistence has finally paid off with a win    Aklso hoping the Barum injury situation improves,  but i suspect that at this stage of the season, they will be far from alone in that regard.

Darth Raider wrote: Thanks for that Camquin.....i've read it several times now.....not sure i properly grasp what will eventually transpire. it seems that perhaps, it is still not known if a level 2 side will be relegated at season's end ?   otherwise.......there will be 16 teams at level 3 next season. there are 15 currently due to the demise of OE's. 1 will be promoted to level 2......leaving 14. 1 team from both existing level 4 leagues will be promoted......taking us back up to 16 i guess that means that nobody will be relegated from level 3 unless a level 2 side comes down ? complex stuff and likely, too much for my ageing brain . i was really just wondering if we were likely to see TJ's again next year  ?  it seems that the answer is that we don't know yet ?

Only going to be 14 teams at level 3 so winners of N2S and N2N promoted and 2 relegated, 1 promoted to level 3.

So highly probable TJs will be relegated

Camquin wrote: But it all depends on what happens at level 2 - there was a post on NCArugby.org saying that ti would stay at 12, but not seen anything on the RFU site - nor have we had confirmation of the Championship Cup format for this season, let alone next. As Cambridge are still just about in the mix for the second promotion spot, it would be nice to know.

Well, we all know who is to blame for the lack of clarity!

So a few weeks back I worked out how the leagues might look if they were split North/East/West or North/Midlands/South. It will be interesting to see what direction they look to go. I think the North is set but whether its Midlands/South or East/West is very much up for debate, just because of how big the South is. These teams were taken as per the positions at the time, so of course some of these teams wont be in it: