By Mark W-J
September 8 2009

One of the RFU’s objectives with the creation of The Championship is to create a league with no easy fixtures; no matches where the result is, to all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion. For London Welsh there is no indication of fixtures getting any easier, with last week’s visit to relegated Bristol being followed this Sunday with a trip to Nottingham (13th September, 3-00pm kick-off).

Nottingham were formed in 1877, but our two clubs didn’t meet until 23^rd February 1985, in the 4^th round of the John Player Cup.  It’s difficult to imagine a situation in which anyone might feel a shred of sympathy for Rob Andrew, but on that windy afternoon at Ireland Avenue the newly-capped fly-half missed nine out of ten shots at goal, landing a single conversion.  As a consequence, Welsh scraped a 12-10 victory despite being outscored by two tries to one, Mark Douglas’ score being augmented by a conversion and two penalties from Colyn Price.

It was 13 seasons later that our paths first crossed in league rugby and in recent years our hosts certainly hold the upper-hand with two consecutive third-place finishes and victories against the Dragons in six of the seven meetings over the last three seasons. The Green & Whites began life in Courage League One, where they remained for five seasons before being relegated alongside Rosslyn Park at the end of the 1991-92 season.  Although Andrew had moved on to Wasps, the club could still boast a number of England internationals, including Brian Moore, Simon Hodgkinson, and Gary Rees; in 1989 Moore became the club’s first – and so far only – British Lion.  By 1997-98 they had suffered a second relegation, and on 27^th September 1997 they paid their first visit to ODP for a competitive fixture.  Welsh had just embarked upon their first foray into professionalism, and ran out 40-14 winners – the six tries were shared between James Reynolds, Michael Dawes, Craig Raymond, Darren Edwards and a brace for captain Rowland Phillips; Craig added two penalties and two conversions.

At the end of the season, of course, the Exiles were promoted, while the Green & Whites finished mid-table with 13 wins and 13 defeats; it wasn’t until 2004-05 that they returned, alongside Sedgley Park, to join us.  At the end of that first season back it was Welsh who faced relegation until we secured a 40-30 win at Beeston on the penultimate weekend in what was scheduled to be the last ever game at the old ground after 101 years.  The plan was to move to a new site at Lady Bay, but while the training facility is based at the new site the 1^st XV remained at Ireland Avenue for another season before setting-up home at Notts County’s Meadow Lane.

The club’s push for consecutive third-place finishes almost saw them go out of business last season – like London Welsh this summer, they were said to be only weeks from closure as the economic downturn impacted the resale value of their Ireland Avenue site.  But having overcome one major hurdle they faced another last month when they were locked out of their offices at Meadow Lane, despite having a valid contract and paying £75,000 pa for the privilege, and had to win a High Court battle before being allowed to play their fixtures at the ground for the coming season.

They appear to face another battle on the field this season – as a direct consequence of their success, and possibly the financial situation, they have lost a number of key players over the summer.  Dynamic no.8 Dan Montagu is now at Bristol, prop Robbie Harris and hooker Joe Duffey at Leicester, and centre Tim Molenaar at Gloucester, but they have kept hold of flankers Luke Sherriff and Craig Hammond and full-back Dave Jackson, who scored 289 points, including 22 tries, in all competitions last season.

Former London Irish lock Glenn Delaney is their highly respected young Director of Rugby, and he stated in an interview with an Irish fansite three years ago that his short-term aim was for Nottingham to be consistently in the Top 4 and to be in the Premiership within 10 years.  Last weekend’s home defeat to the Pirates maybe gives an indication of where they’re likely to stand this season, but given the lottery of the play-offs and the fact that they – currently, at least – play in a stadium fit for the Premiership, you wouldn’t bet against Delaney meeting his objectives.