By Mark W-J
February 16 2016

London Welsh’s 22-18 win over Nottingham Rugby at ODP on Saturday was only our seventh victory in 16 Championship outings this season, but was enough to see us open the gap to the single relegation place to 13 points with just six games remaining.  But a look at the forthcoming fixtures suggests that we can’t relax just yet, with key matches between the bottom five teams still to be played.

Although we have just seven league wins to our credit, we have won away at the teams currently occupying second and third place in the table - Doncaster and Yorkshire (Leeds) Carnegie respectively - and beaten the next three clubs - Bedford, Jersey and now Nottingham - at home.  Yet of the clubs in the lower half of the table, we only have home-and-away wins over Moseley to our credit, having lost to Pirates, London Scottish (twice), Rotherham and Ealing.  So consistency is very much our Achilles heel - only once, back in the opening month of the season, have we recorded back-to-back league wins, beating Moseley and Bedford to finish the month in fourth place and looking to extend our record of never having finished a Championship season outside of the top four.

With matches against Ealing, Rotherham and Pirates still to come, you’d expect that a team capable of winning at Headingley should be confident of accruing enough points to stop looking over our shoulder as the weeks tick by.  But while we face a tricky visit to Jersey in our next game (Saturday 27^th February) the bottom two teams face-off a potentially decisive fixture as Ealing entertain Moseley, the team who leap-frogged them last weekend.  Mose inflicted a seventh consecutive defeat on Rotherham, whose last league victory came at Nottingham back on 8^th November.  The Titans hierarchy reacted by relieving Head Coach Mark Jones of his duties earlier in the week, and (at the time of writing) there are rumours that he is to be replaced, until the end of the season, by Justin Burnell.  Rotherham’s next game is at home to Bedford, before they visit ODP on 5^th March, but their season finishes at Ealing for a game which could determine who faces the drop.

So despite finding themselves at the foot of the table, Ealing still have home matches against the three teams immediately above them, and only two away fixtures.  However, their home form is poor, with a solitary victory at Vallis Way against Cornish Pirates in round four augmented by away wins in the local derbies at both Exiles clubs.  Their 63-10 drubbing at Bristol on Friday night means that they now have the worst defensive record in the league (477 points) although their points scored (335) compares favourably with the mid-table sides such as Nottingham, Jersey and Pirates.

Following their trip to Ealing, Moseley still have difficult fixtures against Leeds, Doncaster (both home) and Bristol (away), before they finish their season at home to London Scottish.  They won at the Athletic Ground on the opening weekend of the season, but their three subsequent victories have all come at home, where they’ve beaten Ealing, Pirates and Rotherham.  It’s difficult to see where they would be able to find another victory should they lose to Ealing and drop to the foot of the table next weekend.

So, all things being equal, you’d like to think that Welsh are safe from the drop.  That’s not to say that we can relax - nobody who experienced the mathematically possible although highly improbable set of results when we set off to Wakefield on the final weekend of April 1990 will ever rest easy until the final result is in, but our bonus-point win over Nottingham last Saturday gave a glimpse of what this squad is capable of.  In fairness, the performance in defeat at London Scottish seven days previously was more impressive, especially the defensive effort of the 13 men for a double-sin-binning which extended to almost 12 minutes.  But, as mentioned earlier, consistency has been our undoing - that, and a lack of penetration in attack which has seen us score the fewest points (277) in the Championship this season.  There are many arguments as to what our problem has been - complacency, as the relegated team with the parachute payment and the squad of ex-Premiership stars; or the off-field distractions, as rumours of overseas investment and an impending move to the Pro 12 have been bandied around since last summer.  When we’ve clicked, we’ve been tough to beat, but still not good enough to be a threat to the top four.  Good enough to creep away from the bottom four?  Fingers crossed…

Championship season - 16 down, 6 to go

Discussion started by The Dragons' Den , 16/02/2016 14:56

The Dragons' Den
16/02/2016 14:56

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016:03:16:14:40:44 by chappers.

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peterh64
16/02/2016 19:12

good stuff, pleased for justin

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paddytaf
16/02/2016 19:52

I owe Justin a pint. On more than one occasion i offered to buy him a drink, but he always said "thanks for the offer and i'm in the chair" So hopefully this time on the 5th March he will take up my offer. Top guy in everything he has done. PADDYTAF.

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oxford wizard
16/02/2016 20:07

Looking forward to 5th March

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