national 2 south status

I still don’t know the make-up. We are to the west of London and it is easier for us to get to Clifton (when the M4 is open) than it is to get to Westcliff. So there is an argument for us going West. When we were at Level 3 our Christmas match was away at Plymouth because we were the nearest team to them!

Tomorrow will be interesting! We have lost twice - away at Lions and Henley. We have beaten Lions at home and hope to beat Henley tomorrow. Our match at Henley was impacted by our fly half testing positive on the morning of the match and our back line was disrupted. This time our first choice centres are both out - for the season - but their stand-ins are doing well. We have 2extra loan forwards, one benches tomorrow, and we hope that will help us through the next few difficult weeks!

True there will be 11 coming up as it stands, some of which will have won nothing - I don't envy their position coming up having finished 3rd!! The 6 clubs who would have been relegated from L4 will also retain their positions so I think everyone can expect the 3 new L4 leagues will indeed be split into two halves (but that is not uncommon in other leagues around the land) 

I’m surprised you say most DoRs are unhappy with the change. That’s not something I’ve heard. I know ours is very happy with the change.

Looking forward to today’s match. It will be close, all our matches are at the moment, and our winning streak is now our longest since we last won National 1! We have a very settled pack of forwards and a very experienced pair of wingers, let’s hope the bits that link them together work better than last week!

Choppers managed to continue their incredible unbeaten away record with a narrow victory over Clifton. 

Am hoping for some eyewitness accounts on this one.  So Redruth go top of the table again  

Perhaps more surprising was the Hawks win at Molesey Rd.  Not so much the win itself, but the size of it. The scoreline would seem to indicate a bit of a cuffing ?  Whether this will be enough to get the Dry Leas mob back in the running is yet to be seen.....but there is still a third of the season left and that was a big step in the right direction.  

After their defeat at home to my lot.....BSE have now won 5 on the trot.....easing past OA's and Guernsey into the 'best of the rest' position in 7th.  A very good run.  You would think that Lions might find it difficult to close the gap on those above them after this defeat, though they have several games in hand.

Such is the standard, that my lot, who have won 6 on the trot themselves, dropping only one point, are still anchored in 4th place.  But i'll take that 

We hosted the top bonus points scorers in the league yesterday.....Dings.  They play an excellent brand of attacking rugby, running the ball from pretty much anywhere.  All of their back 3 are very good players and they gave us quite a fright, taking the lead early in the second half.  Thankfully, our own backs were in decent form too and saw us home.

Dings should really have secured a second BP when they kicked a lengthy pen from our 10m line with 2mins left on the clock to secure the LBP.  Unfortunately, they then butchered the restart and we got over for our 8th try......which will have disappointed them 

The islanders edged past the Barnow boys in another 5-2 win.....that looks like it will have been another tense finish ?

And yet another 2-5 in the OA's win at Rochford......who seem to havegiven another good account of themselves and continue to pick up valuable league points.

Westcliff followed up their first win last week with another strong performance at home to Hinckley.  The visitors took the spoils but the 12-22 scoreline still looks like a much improved defensive performance.  Perhaps they are starting to head in the right direction ?

Lastly,  the City Side picked up the expected 5pts in a convincing win against injury depleted Barum. 

In the game, Raiders made a number of mistakes and in the first half, our backs took full advantage, romping to a 0-19 lead, then we lost our fly half to concussion, which completely changed the shape of our play, and one of our locks was carded right on half time, under our posts, and Guernsey’s excellent front five turned the screw and scored..7-19 at the break with a man down not the same as going in 0-19 up and a full compliment of players on the pitch! two quick scores by Raiders, from poorly defended catch and drives whilst we were still down to 14 men, saw the islanders take the lead 19-21, and for the rest of the game we were strangled by their forwards, and the little possession we did get was squandered through a uncharacteristic series of knock ons..we have a couple of chances to win in the dying minutes, a long distance penalty, and a knock on with a simple run in begging so we have only ourselves to blame…still we had great fun after the game, and for many of our youngsters it was their first experience of a “tour” albeit it a short one, and the disappointment soon dissipated into mellow goodwill to all rugby folks, rugby memories are made of weekends like this one!

Normally as you know it is usually one man and his dog at Clifton but with the Cornish in town the gate appeared quite good.

The newspaper report failed to mention two spectacular tries from the Clifton backs and surprisingly their scrum was stronger but their lineout was a mess and Redruth took advantage of this.

Some would say that scrum half Oulton was the difference between the two sides but it was only a needless penalty that defined the win.

This match was a credit to National League Rugby and may be Redruth wanted it more than Clifton.

I am beginning to suspect some sort of skullduggery down at the local betting shop from those Barnow boys    Leave it out chaps !  there are many well intentioned chaps here trying to predict the results every week !  that is 5 draws now.....which must be a record.  I reckon we should get a written apology from Injun or somebody at GoosePooPark 

Clifton already had a very impressive pack.  The two new additions seem to have taken them up another level as they mangled OA's at Woollams today.  When OA's visited our place recently, i thought that their weakness ewas their front row.....so this was a match made in hell for them today 

Things keep changing......as does my dodgy opinion, but it is starting to look like the top two have a bit of an edge on the teams in 3rd to 6th place......and a big edge on the others.

Another good win by Lions at home.......putting a nil on the City Side.  Aside from an early season defeat to Clifton, they have had an 100% record since.  They have not been quite as good away so far......and let us hope fervently that that continues next week. 

The 100 seem to be on stronger form of late and indeed, free scoring.  Another TBP away at Dings today......scoring 5 tries in the first 60mins.....perhaps running out of steam after that.  If you were a neutral and wanted a season ticket......Shaftesbury Park might be the place to go ?  Dings win this one by 9 tries to 5, after losing by 8 tries to 5 against my lot last week (another good option for a season ticket

I do worry for the mental health of their defence coach mind 

The islanders have been in decent form and free scoring themselves of late,  so it was no mean feat for the Hawks to put a nil on them at Dry Leas whilst picking up the TBP.  I am assuming for now, that it was the re-modelled and effective Hawks back line that scored their tries in the corners, there being no conversions.  So Hawks still hanging in there 

i don't yet have a proper first hand account of my lot's expedition to Pottington Rd.....Raiders often take large numbers of fans to away games and Barum is a much favoured destination.  I know many were put of by the weather yesterday.....bad news for the home teams coffers.  I do know that the pitch was very heavy, the wind was in excess of 40mph and there was rain.  I am still pleased with another win on the road, but suspect that the conditions might have cost us our usual TBP  

hoping as ever for some first hand accounts of any of today's games.