By Tom Little
September 30 2014

...including Coventry Rugby v Wharfedale.

Week 5 - Saturday 4^th October 2014 Fixtures.

Blackheath                   v       Blaydon

Coventry Rugby          v       Wharfedale

Darlington MP             v       Macclesfield

Ealing Tfs                      v       Cinderford

Fylde                              v       Loughborough Students

Hartpury College          v      Esher

Rosslyn Park                  v      Old Albanian

Tynedale                        v       Richmond

Pick of the fixtures this week is that of the away match between Tynedale and Richmond. Both sides have made good starts to the season with Richmond matching leaders Ealing with an unbeaten 95% record, whilst Tynedale lost their first game away to Cinderford and are in 6^th place. It is never easy going northwards and Tynedale can be formidable on their own patch, and Richmond had a mighty scare in just beating Darlington MP. A win for Richmond could confirm them as serious title contenders.

Slightly easier to predict are leaders Ealing Tfs at home to Cinderford. Still unbeaten and only having dropped one bonus point, Ealing are the team to beat. Although Cinderford will be boosted by their first win of the season over Tynedale, the power and pace of the whole Ealing team should gain them a relatively easy victory, although they were not without problems in their win over Wharfedale.

A possible shock may be on the cards as Esher travel to Hartpury College who have made a steady start to their first ever NL1 campaign. Esher had a very close and late win over Fylde but they cannot afford to take the college too lightly as they have a good balance of youth and experience to surprise a good many sides this season.

It should be a high scoring game on the coast as fourth placed Fylde  entertain Loughborough Students. Although the Students are still without a win, they have run all their opponents close albeit too late. If they can keep their discipline they make shock Fylde, but home advantage should count in the end, as Fylde have the honour of being the only team in the top five not from West London.

A team that last week found the Students almost too hot to handle, Rosslyn Park have winless Old Albanian as their visitors. Despite being second favourites Park have not been as dominant as expected, but they should be back on song in facing a somewhat lethargic OA side. Another OA loss will leave them in serious trouble.

Two sides feeling somewhat annoyed over their respective last week’s defeats Coventry Rugby and Wharfedale both meet at the BPA. With both sides having two wins and two defeats a close game is expected. A full preview of this game will follow.

Two more sides with similar records, Blackheath and Blaydon meet in London. Blaydon will be pleased after coming from behind to beat Coventry, whilst Blackheath had a slightly easier task in beating Old Albanian. A difficult one to predict but home advantage might just sway it.

It should be easier to predict the final game on show, that of the league newcomers Darlington Mowden Park and Macclesfield who meet in the north-east. Although Darlington MP have only won one game they have settled in well and almost caused an upset being close to beating Richmond last week. They have recruited well and should be far too strong over a Macclesfield side yet to win or even get anywhere near to winning.

COVENTRY RUGBY V WHARFEDALE MATCH PREVIEW

This coming Saturday 4^th October sees Coventry Rugby return home to the Butts Park Arena in their third home match of the season as they face Wharfedale, with kick off as usual at 3 pm.

Wharfedale founded in 1923 are also known as the”greens “ hold the record for being in National League 1 continuously for 19 seasons. Two seasons ago they flirted with relegation finishing in 13^th place but last season reached the heady heights of 9^th. Under head Coach Jon Feeley assisted by coaches Tom McGee and Hedley Verity they are currently in 10^th place with two wins and two losses   just one point behind Coventry Rugby. Dale have maintained close links with Yorkshire! Leeds Carnegie with a number of Leeds Academy players as well as Tom McGee being a coach at Leeds.

Similar to Coventry ,Wharfedale have won two, lost two games, with wins over Hartpury College away and a home win over Darlington Mowden Park, there was a narrow loss away at Tynedale by 20-17, and last week at home they lost to title favourites Ealing Tfs 21-8 after leading 8 nil at half-time. It appears that Dale were unable to take full advantage of a two man advantage in the first half, but when key player scrum-half James Doherty was red carded in the second, Ealing took full advantage quickly surpassing the deficit.

Usually a fairly settled side Wharfedale have this season lost two key players Tom Barrett No 10 and leading points scorer, to Rotherham Titans and the iconic No 8 Aaron Myers with hair to match to newcomers Darlington MP. New players in amongst the backs include James Doherty as already mentioned back from Leeds Carnegie, fly-half Will Bell, impressive winger Matt Van Siterma from Caldy, Cameron Hudson in the centre and local lad Taylor Prell as full-back. New back row players are well represented with Alex Powell, Chris Howick and from Middlesbough Tom Burridge.

Key players retained  include two more impressive wingers Oli Cicognini and Scott Jordan, with centres Christian Georgiou (although he was recalled by Leeds last Sunday) and goal-kicker Tom Davidson. Experienced  half-backs Philip Whitehead and Harry Bullough are more than matched by flanker Rob Baldwin, who did pick up an injury against Ealing.

The effective and experienced front row with hookers Ian Larkin and Dan Stockdale remain, together with prop forwards Adam Howard, Richard Rhodes, try scorer Matt Beesley and Jake Armstrong.

Games between both these teams usually goes with home advantage, last season Wharfedale beat Coventry Rugby 38-26 at Threshfield but lost on their visit to the BPA 22-10. Always hard fought the key will be the battle between the two packs with an injury hit Coventry still finding their best form, whilst Wharfedale may have to do without their key players James Doherty and Rob Baldwin.

A game that Coventry  need to win to put behind them the second half display in losing at Blaydon and to cement a top half place.

Kick off as usual at the Butts Park Arena is 3pm.

Tom Little

Coventry Rugby press office

30^th September 2014.

Week 5 - league 1 previews 4-10-2014...

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 30/09/2014 15:55

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
30/09/2014 15:55

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tom snr
02/10/2014 14:18

update about Wharfedale side the red card against James Doherty has been rescinded but Rob Baldwin is out for rest of season.

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