Post by Jamie Crawford on Jan 13, 2015 13:03:14 GMT
We are now half way through the season, we have played every team in the Championship and we now look forward to playing them all again the reverse fixture but hopefully with a better win:loss ration than the first half of the season.
At this half way stage, the Knights are in eleventh place in the Championship with 16 points. Bristol top the table with 52 points and Plymouth Albion prop it up with 8 points.
OK it was a very disappointing loss at Bedford, lost in the dying minutes again. Especially as the three teams immediately above also lost, if we had won, we’d be eighth! However that was last week, let’s try again this week as we welcome one of those three teams to Castle Park. Jersey are ninth and two points above us. With Moseley (10th) hosting Worcester Warriors (2nd) on Saturday and Bristol (1st) lying in wait for Yorkshire (Leeds) Carnegie (8th) on Sunday, we are masters of our league position in a way. You can never rely on other results but it would be amazing if Moseley or Carnegie won, so it’s up to us to beat Jersey to (hopefully) be eighth next week.
Moseley are also two points above and Carnegie are three points above but if we win and Carnegie manage to score a losing bonus point, we’d still be above on the number of wins; hoping that they’re not the first team to beat Bristol this season! Even if both Moseley and Carnegie do win, we’ll go tenth if we beat Jersey. Aspiring to rise further up the table, seventh-placed Cornish Pirates are eight points above and they travel to the Capital to face third-placed London Scottish on Friday evening. Aiming higher still, fifth-placed Rotherham Titans host sixth-placed Bedford Blues. I’ll stop there as it’s a bit of a leap to fourth-placed Nottingham but it’s a veritable gulf between Bristol, Worcester and the rest of the Championship. For example Nottingham have only lost two games more than the Warriors but they are 15 points below them.
Plymouth Albion are now eight points below us and their rallying cry for support seems to be paying off with their first win last Saturday. One of their new DR players, Ellis Genge is a 19-year old from Bristol, he started at Prop. Albion’s try was an awarded penalty try plus Moseley spent ¼ of the game with 14 men after receiving two yellow cards. The revitalised Albion travel north to play fourth-placed Nottingham on Sunday.
Jersey have won two games lost eight and drawn one but they’ve scored eight bonus points in the process. Only the Warriors have scored more bonus points. The Knights have won three, lost eight of their games and scored four bonus points. On their respective journeys the Knights have scored 207 points (8.8/game) and Jersey have scored 234 points (21.3/game). The Knights have conceded 255 points (23.2/game) and Jersey have given away 258 points (23.5/game). This means that Jersey’s point’s difference is half of the Knights’. Jersey have scored eleven more tries than the Knights over eleven games, I think that’s about an average of one more per game! Unfortunately for the Knights only Albion have scored fewer tries. Simples - just stop them scoring tries and start scoring more ourselves!
Jersey’s try-scoring has been fairly even throughout the game and by position but they are at their strongest in the second twenty. Wingers and the Back Row have scored 63% of the tries conceded by Jersey, so they could be positions to exploit.
More than half of their conceded tries have been scored in the second half, with over 43% in the last quarter, so possibly fitness is a factor?
With second-placed Wuss up next in the Championship at Sixways, this is a must-win game for the Knights. This week is our chance to get near mid-table as we are eleventh, tenth play second, ninth play us, eighth play first and twelfth play fourth.
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
At this half way stage, the Knights are in eleventh place in the Championship with 16 points. Bristol top the table with 52 points and Plymouth Albion prop it up with 8 points.
OK it was a very disappointing loss at Bedford, lost in the dying minutes again. Especially as the three teams immediately above also lost, if we had won, we’d be eighth! However that was last week, let’s try again this week as we welcome one of those three teams to Castle Park. Jersey are ninth and two points above us. With Moseley (10th) hosting Worcester Warriors (2nd) on Saturday and Bristol (1st) lying in wait for Yorkshire (Leeds) Carnegie (8th) on Sunday, we are masters of our league position in a way. You can never rely on other results but it would be amazing if Moseley or Carnegie won, so it’s up to us to beat Jersey to (hopefully) be eighth next week.
Moseley are also two points above and Carnegie are three points above but if we win and Carnegie manage to score a losing bonus point, we’d still be above on the number of wins; hoping that they’re not the first team to beat Bristol this season! Even if both Moseley and Carnegie do win, we’ll go tenth if we beat Jersey. Aspiring to rise further up the table, seventh-placed Cornish Pirates are eight points above and they travel to the Capital to face third-placed London Scottish on Friday evening. Aiming higher still, fifth-placed Rotherham Titans host sixth-placed Bedford Blues. I’ll stop there as it’s a bit of a leap to fourth-placed Nottingham but it’s a veritable gulf between Bristol, Worcester and the rest of the Championship. For example Nottingham have only lost two games more than the Warriors but they are 15 points below them.
Plymouth Albion are now eight points below us and their rallying cry for support seems to be paying off with their first win last Saturday. One of their new DR players, Ellis Genge is a 19-year old from Bristol, he started at Prop. Albion’s try was an awarded penalty try plus Moseley spent ¼ of the game with 14 men after receiving two yellow cards. The revitalised Albion travel north to play fourth-placed Nottingham on Sunday.
Jersey have won two games lost eight and drawn one but they’ve scored eight bonus points in the process. Only the Warriors have scored more bonus points. The Knights have won three, lost eight of their games and scored four bonus points. On their respective journeys the Knights have scored 207 points (8.8/game) and Jersey have scored 234 points (21.3/game). The Knights have conceded 255 points (23.2/game) and Jersey have given away 258 points (23.5/game). This means that Jersey’s point’s difference is half of the Knights’. Jersey have scored eleven more tries than the Knights over eleven games, I think that’s about an average of one more per game! Unfortunately for the Knights only Albion have scored fewer tries. Simples - just stop them scoring tries and start scoring more ourselves!
Jersey’s try-scoring has been fairly even throughout the game and by position but they are at their strongest in the second twenty. Wingers and the Back Row have scored 63% of the tries conceded by Jersey, so they could be positions to exploit.
More than half of their conceded tries have been scored in the second half, with over 43% in the last quarter, so possibly fitness is a factor?
With second-placed Wuss up next in the Championship at Sixways, this is a must-win game for the Knights. This week is our chance to get near mid-table as we are eleventh, tenth play second, ninth play us, eighth play first and twelfth play fourth.
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
