By Tom Little
February 13 2011

Coventry / Blaydon preview Blaydon founded in 1888, situated close to Newcastle upon Tyne, visit Coventry for the first time in their history this Saturday kick off 3pm at BPA. Last season Blaydon finished 7th in NL1, they are currently in 10th position on 39 points, 1 point and 1 position above Coventry, but with one game in hand.

They have played 18 games ,won 7 and lost 11 and by a quirk of fixtures have also lost 4 of their last 5 games to the same teams as Coventry, namely Cinderford, Macclesfield, London Scottish and Cambridge, although Coventry have done better than Blaydon in their results against the top 4 sides.

Under player coach centre Tom Rock signed from London Welsh, last won against Stourbridge 6 games ago. Players to watch are goal kicking No 10 Ed Yarnton and wing Kevin McShane, lock Chris Wearmouth heads an experienced pack.

Coventry will be smarting from their narrow 1 point loss away to Blaydon, when a last minute conversion blew off course, and need to get their form back on track after 5 successive defeats. Enough skill ,spirit and determination was shown by Coventry in their cruel defeat to league leaders Barking last Saturday to give them the confidence to start pulling away from the  11^th position. A win over Blaydon sees them guaranteed 10^th position and even better if other results go their way.

WEEKEND PREVIEWS Saturday 19^th February

Fixtures

Barking         v      Otley

Cambridge     v     Launceston

Cinderford     v      Blackheath

Coventry        v     Blaydon

Macclesfield   v    Wharfedale

Sedgley Park   v    London Scottish

Stourbridge      v   Rosslyn Park

Tynedale          v   Redruth

This coming weekend sees a full fixture list with many games impacting on Coventry’s position of 11th. Any sort of win for Coventry would take them above Blaydon in the table and could go as high as 8^th if other results go their way.

At the top of the table Barking need to get a bonus point win over lowly Otley to maintain pressure on favourites London Scottish, whilst LS have an away game against Sedgley Park who are in 12^th place.

The tightness of the league is shown with just 2 wins separating Stourbridge in 7^th position and Redruth in 13^th.

Another nerve wracking set of fixtures and no doubt some surprises are in store for this weekend.

WEEEKEND RESULTS ROUNDUP

Results 12^th February

Blackheath           25                      9   Sedgley Park

Blaydon                20                    39   Macclesfield

Coventry               18                    19   Barking

Launceston            22                   18   Cinderford

London Scottish    55                    13  Stourbridge

Redruth                 34                    25   Otley

Rosslyn Park         41                    38   Tynedale

Wharfedale           31                     28  Cambridge

Some surprises this week with Wharfedale having a bonus point win over 3^rd placed Cambridge, and mention should be made of Coventry who defied most predictions by coming close to beating Barking and denying them a bonus point win.

The heavy loss by Stourbridge has brought them back to 43 points in 7^th place just 2 wins from 13^th placed Redruth.

The Cornish sides did other teams a favour by beating Otley and Cinderford, but Wharfedale leapt into 8^th by beating Cambridge, and teams that lost such as Coventry, Tynedale, Otley and Cinderford all picked up losing bonus points, which emphasises the point that this league is so close.

It is no forgone conclusion at the bottom with both Otley and Cinderford just 1 win to get out of the bottom 3.

Coventry Rugby press office

Coventry Rugby v Blaydon preview and weekend results roundup

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 13/02/2011 20:32

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
13/02/2011 20:32

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