Otley v Exeter

Preview –
Another venture into Paleface territory

Having played National League Yo-Yo over the past 2 seasons, Otley started the season hoping for a bit of stability this term, but thus far have failed to register a win, whilst keeping themselves off the base of the table by means of 3 bonus points, 2 at home against CP and Esher, and 1 away at Moseley. So far they have scored 120 points and conceded 247. Apart from against league leaders Leeds, their highest losing margin has been 25 points against Bedford away from home. You have to go back some 10 years to 1998 to find their biggest losing home league margin of 61 points against Worcester in their 7-68 drubbing, which happened to be the same game that they conceded the most home league points as well.
Otley will not want to lose either of these records nor will they want to break another, their highest consecutive league defeats, which currently stands at 7!
In their last outing at Bedford, Otley had 13 players unavailable through injury or work commitments, no less than 8 from their forward pool and 5 from their backs. They were truly glad to be able to call on their 6 dual registration players from neighbours Leeds and their own pair of promising England U19 caps. However, Otley started well, but the difference between the teams was the number of unforced errors and how well they were capitalised on by the opposition, finally going down 37-12 to Bedford.

Exeter Chiefs, however, are currently 2nd in the league, a position they are not unfamiliar with, having spent a lot of last season camped there. The loss against Leeds at SP on the 2nd outing of the season is all that keeps them away from the top spot, having secured 5 BP’s so far. Coming hot on the heals of the win at Brickfields over local rivals Plymouth, Chiefs will be looking to keep up with Otley’s neighbours Leeds, hoping that they will be in a position to creep ahead should Leeds falter. The Chief’s side to play Otley is likely to be all change again, making use of fresh players from their vast squad, with the possibility of run outs for some more of the new faces and the old faithfuls returning from injury.

Exeter have never found Otley easy prey and so will be keen to stamp their mark on this game early with the intention of grabbing the bonus point in the first half. With good weather forecast for Saturday, Exeter need to keep up their open running game and wear down Otley early on. With a coach full of supporters in full vocal form, the Tribe can look forward to another enjoyable venture into the land of the palefaces.

I’ll be there for a couple of Black Sheep, without a pair of wellies in sight, n maybe we’ll sample the ‘All you can eat’ hot buffet in the Long Bar before the match, as long as we don’t run late.

My thanks to the Otley site for a lot of the stats. mentioned above.

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