Top 4 Predictions
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Forum Name: The Championship
Forum Description: Discuss the 12 clubs forming the English Championship.
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Topic: Top 4 Predictions
Posted By: corporalcarrot
Subject: Top 4 Predictions
Date Posted: 02 Sep 2021 at 14:21
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I guess we all hope the season starts well for the team we support and hope they are pushing for a top 4 slot at the season end but excluding your own club which 4 other teams do you think are likely to end up in what used to be a play off spot? My own thoughts in alphabetical order are: Cornish Pirates Coventry Doncaster Ealing ------------- Dont kick it. Pick it up and GO FORWARD. |
Replies:
Posted By: Cherub
Date Posted: 02 Sep 2021 at 14:34
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Why just the top 4. Here is my prediction for the whole 11: 1 Ealing 2 Cornish Pirates 3 Coventry 4 Doncaster 5 Jersey 6 Bedford 7 Ampthill 8 London Scottish 9 Nottingham 10 Hartpury College 11 Richmond ------------- Always trying to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. |
Posted By: Bluesman11
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 00:09
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Tier 1 1. Ealing Tier 2 2. Doncaster 3. Jersey 4. Pirates 5. Coventry Tier 3 6. Bedford 7. Ampthill 8. London Scottish 9. Richmond 10. Hartpury 11. Nottingham I think if Bedford had a decent front row we’d be able to compete with the tier 2 teams, but it’s so hard to win games when you give away penalties at every scrum and end up with a prop binned most games and nothing in our recruitment or first pre season game makes me think this won’t be the case again. Losing OHD for the season with injury also leaves a massive hole in the centres for us. ------------- Championship Prediction League Winner 11/12 |
Posted By: islander
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 07:51
What about the recruitment of a seasoned front row operator as your new Fwds Coach? Seems harsh/pessimistic to dismiss that as 'nothing' a couple of days after his arrival...
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Bluesman11 wrote:Posted By: Halliford
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 10:30
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Here is an educated outsider's guess: 1 Ealing 2 Doncaster 3 Cornish Pirates
4 Jersey 5 Bedford 6 Coventry 7 Ampthill 8 Hartpury College 9 Richmond 10 Nottingham 11 London Scottish |
Posted By: dropout22
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 10:50
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1. Ealing 2. Cornish Pirates 3. Doncaster 4. Jersey 5. Coventry 6. Richmond 7. London Scottish 8. Bedford 9. Ampthill 10. Hartpury 11. Nottingham
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Posted By: Pappashanga
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 11:50
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Except for Ealing top, no idea about the rest. Should become clearer after half a dozen games. On last season's games might have put Mond bottom, but they played so well against Ampthill, probably not. ------------- pappashanga |
Posted By: Bedfordian
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 12:14
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Top three pretty nailed on, 4-6 could be in any order, 7-11 will depend on loans/DR performances and ringers (old cricket term) that will undoubtedly turn up and/or disappear game to game as the season progresses. Injuries / call ups to National teams affect things too. Difficult to call. 2. Doncaster 3. Cornish Pirates 4. Ampthill 5. Coventry 6. Jersey 7. Bedford 8. Nottingham 9. Hartpury 10. London Scottish 11. Richmond
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Posted By: BigChief
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 16:28
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1. Doncaster 2. Ealing 3. C Pirates Just don't think Ealing will get a free run (close, but no cigar). 4. Coventry 5. Bedford 6. Jersey 7. Ampthill 8. London Scottish 9. Nottingham 10. Hartpury 11. Richmond Good luck everyone ! ------------- For the ordinary purposes of conversation, a superficial knowledge of many things goes further than an intimacy with one or two. |
Posted By: Runitback
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 17:06
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Ealing - 1st by a long way Doncaster Cornish Pirates then 4 th spot ( hedging my bets!!!) Jersey/Coventry/Bedford ------------- Run with it |
Posted By: Bluesman11
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2021 at 18:09
He can only work what he’s got, he’s not a miracle worker. Not convinced coaches make a great deal of difference to scrummaging ability. Alex Rae was at Jersey when they had the best scrum in the league and at us when we had the worst. It’s also his first stab at coaching and he was at the club last year so I’m assuming if there was something fundamentally wrong with our scrum as captain he would’ve raised it last year…
------------- Championship Prediction League Winner 11/12 |
Posted By: The Blues
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2021 at 13:42
Bluesman is being extremely negative about the scrum here. Last year we had issues, because we had a lot of injuries to props and were bringing in 18 or 19 year olds and expecting some to play the whole 80 mins. It won’t be the best, but it may not be the worst or could well be, but they need an opportunity before being written off immediately. Hopefully it will be good enough to hold it long enough for the ball to be played most of the time. This year we have pretty much a brand new front 5, so they should evolve as a unit. One season Jersey came to us first game of the season and their scrum was unusually a shambles but over the season it became one of the best.
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Posted By: Pappashanga
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2021 at 17:08
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Two wins on the trot. Mond may be this season’s surprise package. ------------- pappashanga |
Posted By: oneagainstthehead
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2021 at 18:28
Now that WOULD be a treat! ------------- Speak softly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: The Blues
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2021 at 15:14
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This season won't suit the Blues as much, basically being more of a winter season but I am going to be optimistic here and say the rain will stay away allowing for running rugby to allow fast paced games. 2. Pirates 3. Knights 4. Blues 5. Coventry 6. Jersey 7. Ampthill 8. Hartpury 9. Richmond 10. Nottingham 11. London Scottish
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Posted By: Cherub
Date Posted: 05 Sep 2021 at 16:12
You have placed Ampthill 4th! Blimey, I hope you are right........... ------------- Always trying to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. |
Posted By: Bedfordian
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 07:33
| Perhaps they raise their game just vs Bedford, but always look pretty strong to me! |
Posted By: Greg
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 11:04
| I would agree Bedfordfordian. Ampthill certainly appear to put the hex on Bedford and have won all but two of our recent encounters (league and friendly). Tommy Turner is a very shrewd coach and Ampthill keep under the radar but acquit themselves very well indeed. |
Posted By: Member728
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 11:22
not sure what game you were watching LS are unknown at the moment, including to their supporters It was a feisty local derby and yes Richmond had a bit more"steel" about them. They will win more matches than last year but LS just deserved to win 1st half and my prediction is we will not finish bottom |
Posted By: Bedfordian
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 12:44
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[I would agree Bedfordian. Ampthill certainly appear to put the hex on Bedford and have won all but two of our recent encounters (league and friendly). Tommy Turner is a very shrewd coach and Ampthill keep under the radar but acquit themselves very well indeed] Think its just a simple case of a forward dominated team against a running team and the old adage of "you can't score without the ball". Bedford's high risk game plan plus what seems an annual problem of conceding a lot more penalties than anyone else means getting it back is an issue!
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Posted By: isleonian
Date Posted: 06 Sep 2021 at 15:38
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1. Knights 2. Trailfinders 3. Pirates 4. Reds
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Posted By: gerg_861
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 05:53
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Havent had time to write my own yer, but here are Rugby World's thoughts.
https://www.rugbyworld.com/news/rfu-championship-team-by-team-guide-2021-22-season-130403" rel="nofollow - https://www.rugbyworld.com/news/rfu-championship-team-by-team-guide-2021-22-season-130403
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Posted By: castleparknight
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 13:01
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An interesting read gerg - it is not a million miles off what most on here are predicting / guessing. ------------- Onward and Upwards C'mon Donny! |
Posted By: dunc999
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 16:12
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Hard to predict bar the tier 1 and 2 IMO Ealing Quite a big gap Donny CP Cov Then who knows. I think Ampthill may struggle to replace Grimoldby's points and territory kicking so may not quite as competitive as before, but they do have a great coaching team. As for Blues if they can cut out the penalties and improve the scrum, should do well. I go with Bluesman's view on McCarthy though - he was part of the problem last year! Lets go Jersey Blues Hartpury Ampthill Richmond Notts Scottish |
Posted By: Stalwart
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 18:08
| All very unpredictable, apart from Ealing being nailed on favourites. For the rest of us, Ealing will face a cup-final when they come to our clubs - but I think they'll be too strong over the season. My guess is Donny will finish second. |
Posted By: Donnyknightfan
Date Posted: 07 Sep 2021 at 23:42
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Time to get that (usually wrong) crystal ball out again!. 1. Ealing 2. Doncaster 3. Jersey 4. Bedford 5. Cornish Pirates 6. Coventry 7. Ampthill 8. Hartpury 9. Nottingham 10. London Scottish 11. Richmond Ealing to take the title but it won’t be an easy ride and I can see Donny staying close until the last 4/5 games. Expect Jersey and Bedford to massively improve from last season having both made some good signings in the summer. Watch out for the Bedford backs in particular, they’ll run in loads of tries. Pirates and Cov will complete the top six. I think the bottom 3 could be quite a way behind the rest. I’ve gone for Richmond to finish last but it could be anyone from 9-11. LS are an unknown quantity with missing last season so it could take them a few games to get going. ------------- Donny Knights - best team in Yorkshire |
Posted By: gerg_861
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2021 at 20:32
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Okay - stealing a few minutes away from work... 1. Ealing - A few big losses (Murphy, Thompson, Millar-Mills) leave me wondering about the pack. Much depends on just how good their South African recruitment really was. Looked strong against Gloucester. 2. Doncaster - Good recruitment, though Bomber gone. Hope to get up to Castle Park. 3. Pirates - Will S4c or Cross Rail get done first? Doesn't matter, going to the Mennaye is tough, and home form will power Pirates to a top 3 finish. 4. Jersey - Jersey or Cov is a toss up for me. I'll go with Jersey because I visited there. 5. Coventry - And Cov because I haven't. 6. Bedford - I think that the big home crowds will lift them this year, and a fair number of nice signings - especially of returning players. 7. Ampthill - A few key contributors off, but they will be on the upper end of the part-timers. 8. Hartpury - Gloucester A will get enough loanees to survive. Tuvs helps too. 9. Richmond - They treated last year like an extended pre-season. No team with Mark Bright will be last. 10. London Scottish - Who knows? 11. Nottingham - seem to be part time and mostly made up of uni-kids. |
Posted By: Runitback
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2021 at 20:44
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Don't under estimate Nottingham, especially with their partnership to Leicester. ------------- Run with it |
Posted By: castleparknight
Date Posted: 09 Sep 2021 at 07:31
5. Coventry - And Cov because I haven't. (I would recommend you do go visit - great stand, great pub just up the road - I will be there on the 18th hopefully watching the Knights get their first away win of the season). ------------- Onward and Upwards C'mon Donny! |