Greene King IPA Championship - Round 2

Would you say the top teams are probably Irish, Leeds and Doncaster Ozzy?

Nilling them is very impressive, were they at full strength or rotating players?

Those three and Jersey I would say are likely to be the top 4 yappy.  Tough to say if they were at full strength yappy, but I was on their supporters forum in the week and the fans seemed pretty confident that the side they picked could come and get a result.

The London Irish/Richmond game scares me. A fully professional team against amateurs. The Richmond story since the departure of Ashley Levett is a fantastic one, but this (possibly) first visit to the Madj since it was their home base could be painful in many ways.

I know what you mean LT, it should in reality be a complete mismatch, which although nice for us as we've not had too any wins to celebrate in recent years, does highlight the problem with how domestic rugby in this country is structured, particularly regards the Championship.

What team are Yorkshire putting out these days? Nottingham normally have a half decent one and are fairly competitive.

I too feel for Richmond, it's quite a step from League 1 to the Championship. Putting them up against LI that are to all intents and purposes still set up like an AP side it's quite brutal.

From what I have seen fkaS, Yorkshire have a strongish side, with a smattering of guys with Premiership or Pro12 supplemented by some talented youngsters and the odd journeyman.  They have signed Alex Gray from England 7s and are converting him to being a centre.  They will be there or thereabouts at the end I suspect.

Where Nottingham finish I suspect will hinge on what loan/dual registered players they get from Tigers.  i suspect they will be mid table at best.

I think everyone feels for Richmond.  A proud old club that everyone wants to see do well, but understands that they have made the right choice in remaining amateur rather than overextending and going bust.  There captain Will Warden was interviewed at the Championship launch day and this is a snippet;-

“Are you concerned about the potential mismatches that Richmond will inevitably face this season?” he was asked. He answered thus: “I’m not scared of going out there and losing games. I’m scared of going out there and losing the club that we’ve got.” 

It's going to be a cricket score for Irish, but a nice subplot in terms of a return to Reading and a match against the team which the original Richmond merged into.

The Scottish vs Welsh game could be a decent one I reckon, as could the Yorkshire one.

Ozzy, Notts only have the one Tiger on loan. Doncaster are the preferred DOR club these days. Notts have a tendency to find promising young players Harry Williams has gone on to Exeter and done well and Mugford has gone on to Sale in the summer. Upper mod table and maybe a dabble with the playoffs would be about right.

Yorkshire have signed a few bigger names in recent years. Sinfield last season and now it seems Grey. Be interesting to see if he is anymore effective.

How come the switch from Nottingham to Doncaster fkaS?  My initial prediction for Nottingham this year was 8th, but with the lack of coverage that the Championship gets it's a lot more difficult to predict than the Premiership is.

Is it really that bad for Richmond? I know in the past they have played a number of pre-seasons against prem sides. And their 1st have played against Lon Scots most seasons in 1 way or another - always quite feisty with the ground sharing situation.

Perhaps not against LI but I would hope that Richmond would be competitive in the lower half of the championship - after all, its about survival for the newly promoted side.

Ozzy3213 wrote:How come the switch from Nottingham to Doncaster fkaS?  My initial prediction for Nottingham this year was 8th, but with the lack of coverage that the Championship gets it's a lot more difficult to predict than the Premiership is.

Not entirely sure. It came about mainly when Haag was in charge, focus was more on having a core 23 of Nottingham players and they weren't so keen to parachute Tigers players in for game time. Haag with his Bath connections got a couple of Bath loans in as well at one time. Doncaster seem much happier to have Tigers players available as and when to round out their squad. I don't think any Tigers players appeared for Notts last season but with Haag gone we've sent Yawayawa (a very promising winger) there for the entire season and were supposed to have a pre season friendly.

Yeah I think Yawayawa played against us in the pre season friendly we had with Nottingham.  I guess you can't blame them from wanting a core of players who are full time with the club, but I would have thought a smattering of DR's would also be beneficial, just to bring the level of quality up a bit.

Bedford Blues team to face Jersey...

Starting line-up:
15. Matt Gallagher
14. Elliot Clement-Hill
13. Tom Farrell
12. Michael Le Bourgeois (c)
11. Dean Adamson
10. Myles Dorrian
9. Jordan Burns

1. Hayden Thompson-Stringer
2. Jacob Fields
3. Dave Spelman
4. Will Carrick-Smith
5. Ed Taylor
6. Jason Hill
7. Josh Buggea
8. Ben Adams

Replacements: 
16. George Edgson
17. Jack Culverhouse
18. Chris Judge
19. Mike Howard
20. Tom James
21. Jake Sharp
22. George Perkins

http://www.bedfordrugby.co.uk/content/match-preview-v-jersey-reds

Ealing Trailfinders v Cornish Pirates, Mennaye Field, 3pm, Sunday 11 Sept


1 Nacho Lancuba
2 Rhys Lawrence
3 Lewis Thiede
4 Carwyn Jones
5 Harry Casson
6 Willie Ryan
7 Iain Grieve
8 Mark Bright (captain)

9 Luke Carter 
10 Ben Ward
11 Phil Chesters
12 Joe Munro
13 Lewis Jones
14 Curtis Wilson
15 Will Harries

Reserves 
16 Arthur Ellis
17 Will Davis
18 Alex Penny
19 Llewelyn Jones
20 Mike MacFarlane
21 Alex Walker
22 Aaron Penberthy 

http://ealingtrailfinders1stxv.com/news/phil-and-will-return-for-pirates-visit

Ozzy3213 wrote:  They have signed Alex Gray from England 7s and are converting him to being a centre.  

That's an interesting one Ozzy.

That Yorkshire side looks quite decent - there are a number of names I recognise.

13. Alex Gray
11. Seb Stegmann
10. Joe Ford
1. Lee Imiolek
4. Dean Schofield
7. Richard Mayhew
8. Ryan Burrows (c)
22. Tom Casson

They have a few guys with AP experience, Carnegie will definitely be top 4 at the end of the season in my opinion.

GeordieFalcon wrote:

Ozzy3213 wrote:  They have signed Alex Gray from England 7s and are converting him to being a centre.  

That's an interesting one Ozzy.

It will be fascinating to see how he goes GF.  From memory he is reasonably quick and has decent hands, but was always a bit lightweight to be a Premiership number 8.  It could turn out to be a very good move for him.

Imiolek was once a bright young England prospect want he?

He was yappy.  he was at Sale I believe.

Richmond did a lot better than expected. Hats off to them as most would have expected that to be a cricket score.

They were a better side than I expected fkaS, they actually played some decent rugby.  Too be fair, we got 5 tries up just after half time without them troubling the scoreboard or our 22, then we unloaded the bench and completely switched off and they bagged a couple of tries.  The weather was truly appalling as well so was never going to be a try fest.  I think the fact that 5 of our tries were scored by forwards and the other one by the scrum half sums up what sort of game it was.

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/greene-king-ipa-championship-stories-from-week-two/