Whilst we are stuck in our winter/spring holiday period the ND1 battle for top is hotting up. 

Last night Richmond the leaders went and drew with Moseley.  Rotherham had the opportunity to put the pressure on and they lost by 3 at Plymouth.

5 games to go and 5 points in it.  Rosslyn Park are a further 5 points behind and Plymouth 1 behind that.

Personally if only 1 comes up I would rather it were Rotherham.  Richmond have been a bit of a yo-yo club and it would be good to have Rotherham back in the league after a long time out of it, similar to what happened to Coventry.

Also, if I am being selfish, I prefer going to as many different grounds as possible, rather than two trips to the RAG. So for that reason I would prefer Rotherham, but it is got to be sorted on the pitch.

Thank you for your kind words. We have been playing the  last few weeks with a horrendous injury list resulting in us generally still winning games, but losing out on a clutch of bonus points. I would say that we have the best pack in the league, but both  of our main hookers, both suffered broken hands in the win at Bishops Stortford a few weeks back, and also a key second row and fly half, which meant we were playing players out of position for several games.

Yesterday saw us play probably the best team in the league on current form, but we stuck at it and played the last 40 minutes or so with only 14 men due to Zak Poole receiving two yellow cards, which obviously turned into a red.

We still managed to come back & get a bonus point in a game which I am sure we would have won if we had kept all 15 on. Not to begrudge Plymouth though who are a good team and to be fair, with better decision making should have won at the Lane.

As of now, all the three games away that we have lost away, could and possibly should have been wins too, losing of course yesterday, and in the last play of the game at both Richmond and Sale.

So we are on 81 points with 5 games to go, which to say we only got promoted last season, is an outstanding achievement if we didn’t win another game. Frightening though we could have had seven or eight more points, so I hope the lack of try bonus points doesn’t come back to bite us.

We are definitely a team on the up, but I have to say, Nat 1 is a fantastic league to be in. Proper structure in terms of frequency of home games and some great clubs, and I believe five or six of them would grace the league above. Our league is a semi pro league and of course a National so I don’t understand how anyone could pigeon hole it as a community league, apart from the fact that clubs are actively involved in community Rugby.

I think it would be abhorrent for any other phoenix club to be placed ahead of Nat 1 clubs, as they have not earned it on the field, and also they in effect would be hybrid clubs, having to sign a complete new team, getting players from clubs that shall we say are more established. So building one such team they risk fracturing others teams who have worked hard to get where they are.

Good for the game it is not. If the expanding the Championship is to go ahead then two should be promoted from Nat 1.

Back to the more important on the field matters, we still have to host Richmond so we are still fighting. However, no games can be taken for granted, because if you do you will lose. You can’t generally get away with it in this league.

Have some great memories of the Championship, which we played in for 22 seasons from 1996 to 2018, apart from two seasons in the Premiership. 

My first ever away game for me was Bedford in 1996 in our first season at level 2,  when Bedford were owned by Frank Warren & a little known Rugby League player called Martin Offiah (😂) made his debut for Bedford.

All the best and hope one day we can get back up, hopefully very soon.

1. Stay in National 1 (my recommendation  )

2. When league expands the 2 front NL1 is preferable 

Was hoping Roth would come back up but doesn’t look likely now. Having said that I have always enjoyed the games against Richmond, the Knights have had some good battles against them in the Championship. The way that they were relegated 2 years ago with a certain club parachuting in a load of Premiership players for the last few games absolutely stank as well so it will be good to have them back in the league. 

Richmond and theoretically but that will change 5 clubs that could be 2nd.