Week 17 - 5th January 2013 results round up.


By Tom Little.
January 6 2013

Results 5th January:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blaydon           24          22      Richmond

Cambridge      21           41     Coventry

Cinderford       36          21      Rosslyn Park  

Ealing Tfs          34          13     Macclesfield

Esher                 45          26     Loughborough Students

Old Albanian    31          10     Fylde

Sedgley Park       9          19     Tynedale

Wharfedale        15         25    Blackheath

Is the four horse race now becoming a two horse one with wins for leaders Ealing and 2nd placed Blaydon taking them into a 12 point lead over a losing Rosslyn Park? The chasing pack are led by Old Albanian in 5th place with no fewer than 8 teams separated by just 10 points (or two bonus point wins).

It is not so close for the bottom three as they all lost and none were able to pick up even a losing bonus point. Macclesfield, Cambridge and Sedgley Park are all now already running out of games and all need an unimaginable run of form to pressurise the teams above, with Wharfedale still 12 points ahead of Sedgley Park.

Leaders Ealing found bottom side Macclesfield more difficult than expected and it needed a 2nd half surge to finally get their visitors to run out of steam.

Likewise with Blaydon in 2nd place had a more than difficult game against Richmond, as their London visitors stormed into a 22-7 lead early in the 2nd half. In danger of losing their impressive winning run Blaydon dug deep, helped by a yellow card against Richmond, and two further tries with a late penalty by Andrew Baggett kept them in touch with Ealing, now only two points behind them.

Third placed Rosslyn Park stuttered again as a rejuvenated Cinderford won with a 5 try blitz, helped by a brace from try scoring hooker Tom Bozzard. Rosslyn Park are now 12 points behind the leaders, and are now only one point ahead of Esher who put their own patchy form behind them with beating Loughborough Students.

As usual with games against the Students it wasn’t all plain sailing and despite the home side going 24-0 up at halftime a second half fight back gave the Students a try bonus point .A warning to other teams that write off Loughborough too soon in the game.

Old Albanian maintained their pressure on 4th place with another bonus point win, this time over Fylde. A win based on excellent defence and then the ability to switch onto attack gave Fylde little respite helped by another immaculate kicking display by Richard Gregg, and bringing them to just 8 points behind Esher.

Blackheath travelled the long way to the Dales to deny Wharfedale a much needed home victory, a defeat that keeps Dale in 13th place just above the relegation zone, but puts Blackheath into 6th place. Once again the importance of having a consistent goal kicker with Rory Teague proving the difference.

It was more difficult for goal kickers at Cambridge with a swirling wind and heavy pitch, but a resurgent Coventry side ran in 7 tries in virtually sealing the home side’s relegation fate. In an overall excellent team performance Coventry helped by the best defence in the league are now into the top half of the league.

The final game saw relegation zone team Sedgley Park unable to reproduce their home form they found against Coventry to slump to a home defeat by Tynedale. In a largely forgettable game, time and games are running out for Sedgley.

Match previews of Week 18 fixtures on the 12th January together with a detailed Coventry Rugby v Loughborough Students preview will be available shortly.

 

Tom Little

Coventry Rugby press office

6th January 2013

 

 

 

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Week 17 - 5th January 2013 results round up.
Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 06/01/2013 20:34
Unofficial Coventry Rugby
Unofficial Coventry Rugby
06/01/2013 20:34
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