Post by Jamie Crawford on Jan 2, 2015 16:05:54 GMT
Happy New Year to one and all.
Sorry for the lateness. Wrote it on Monday to Tuesday but monitor broke Tuesday, away Wed/Thur, borrowed a monitor today!
The Knights start 2015 with their biggest home fixture (in attendance) against neighbours Rotherham Titans. The Knights start the game off the back of their easy defeat by the then fifth-placed Nottingham (now fourth); the Titans start after narrow loss to the then eleventh-placed Moseley (now ninth).
The knights have replaced Moseley in eleventh place and only have Plymouth Albion keeping them off the relegation spot but it’s not all doom and gloom, we’ve got players returning from injury, our early form was a match for any team in the Championship and Albion are ten points below us, so three wins away. Don’t forget that’s three wins when we lose, so every win we have pushes the target further back.
The Titans now find themselves pushed out of the top four by Nottingham (and losing to Moseley) but they are knocking on the door in fifth. The Titans have won five and lost four of their nine games played, the Knights have won three and lost six. The Titans have scored 200 points and conceded 213. The Knights have scored 157 points and they have the third strongest defence in the Championship after conceding 197 points. Bristol and Worcester Warriors are the only other teams to have conceded less than 200 points.
The teams that beat the Titans were:
London Scottish A
Worcester Warriors H
Bristol A
Moseley H
All of these teams also beat the Knights.
The Titans have scored an average of one point per game more than the Knights (2.56 v 1.56). Fly Half James McKinney is the Titan top points scorer and fifth top in the Championship. This points table is topped by Dougie Flockhart. Ex-Knight Winger Michael Keating and Hooker Tom Cruse (without the ‘i’) are their top try scorers.
Titan Centres, Wingers and Back Row share the Titan try-scoring by position title with the front row ‘backing them up’.
Looking for the positives for us, Rotherham Titans have conceded more tries scored by forwards than any other team in the Championship and over twice as many as the Knights. Conversely though the Titans have conceded the fewest tries scored by backs in the Championship and 57% of those conceded by the Knights. Back Row followed by the Front Row have been the most prolific scorers against the Titans.
The Titans are the sixth top try-scorers in the championship after scoring nearly ten more than the Knights but more noteworthy for the Knights is that the Titans have conceded more tries than eight other teams in the Championship.
It seems that our Wingers must be wary of Keats but they’re more than a match, similarly Jack Bergmanas, Ben Hunter or Vili Veikoso are more than a match for Top Gun Tom Cruse (sorry). Matt Chalinor and all of the forwards should try to lead the try-scoring and exploit a Titan weakness. Although this has probably been identified and strengthened – no matter, whether a weakness exists or not they should still try their hardest to score if a chance reveals itself. Knight backs should view previous Titan defence as a challenge. Can they cross the Titan try-line and put the ball down to score a try where only eight other backs have managed to in over twelve hours of rugby played this season? Wouldn’t it be great if Tyson not only did this but also broke his record for the fastest try scored?
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
Sorry for the lateness. Wrote it on Monday to Tuesday but monitor broke Tuesday, away Wed/Thur, borrowed a monitor today!
The Knights start 2015 with their biggest home fixture (in attendance) against neighbours Rotherham Titans. The Knights start the game off the back of their easy defeat by the then fifth-placed Nottingham (now fourth); the Titans start after narrow loss to the then eleventh-placed Moseley (now ninth).
The knights have replaced Moseley in eleventh place and only have Plymouth Albion keeping them off the relegation spot but it’s not all doom and gloom, we’ve got players returning from injury, our early form was a match for any team in the Championship and Albion are ten points below us, so three wins away. Don’t forget that’s three wins when we lose, so every win we have pushes the target further back.
The Titans now find themselves pushed out of the top four by Nottingham (and losing to Moseley) but they are knocking on the door in fifth. The Titans have won five and lost four of their nine games played, the Knights have won three and lost six. The Titans have scored 200 points and conceded 213. The Knights have scored 157 points and they have the third strongest defence in the Championship after conceding 197 points. Bristol and Worcester Warriors are the only other teams to have conceded less than 200 points.
The teams that beat the Titans were:
London Scottish A
Worcester Warriors H
Bristol A
Moseley H
All of these teams also beat the Knights.
The Titans have scored an average of one point per game more than the Knights (2.56 v 1.56). Fly Half James McKinney is the Titan top points scorer and fifth top in the Championship. This points table is topped by Dougie Flockhart. Ex-Knight Winger Michael Keating and Hooker Tom Cruse (without the ‘i’) are their top try scorers.
Titan Centres, Wingers and Back Row share the Titan try-scoring by position title with the front row ‘backing them up’.
Looking for the positives for us, Rotherham Titans have conceded more tries scored by forwards than any other team in the Championship and over twice as many as the Knights. Conversely though the Titans have conceded the fewest tries scored by backs in the Championship and 57% of those conceded by the Knights. Back Row followed by the Front Row have been the most prolific scorers against the Titans.
The Titans are the sixth top try-scorers in the championship after scoring nearly ten more than the Knights but more noteworthy for the Knights is that the Titans have conceded more tries than eight other teams in the Championship.
It seems that our Wingers must be wary of Keats but they’re more than a match, similarly Jack Bergmanas, Ben Hunter or Vili Veikoso are more than a match for Top Gun Tom Cruse (sorry). Matt Chalinor and all of the forwards should try to lead the try-scoring and exploit a Titan weakness. Although this has probably been identified and strengthened – no matter, whether a weakness exists or not they should still try their hardest to score if a chance reveals itself. Knight backs should view previous Titan defence as a challenge. Can they cross the Titan try-line and put the ball down to score a try where only eight other backs have managed to in over twelve hours of rugby played this season? Wouldn’t it be great if Tyson not only did this but also broke his record for the fastest try scored?
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
