Post by Jamie Crawford on Apr 26, 2016 14:21:37 GMT
The Knights finished the 2015/16 in their highest position ever, second place in the Championship. In other words the Knights are the fourteenth best team in England after 22 games against comparable teams. In their turn Carnegie finished third just one league point behind the Knights. Carnegie won fourteen and lost eight of the games that they played and the Knights won fifteen, drew two and lost five of theirs.
More importantly head-to-head this season; on Fri 9th Oct, 2015 Carnegie beat the Knights 27-20 (+7) at Headingly, then on Sat 13th Feb, 2016 the Knights beat Carnegie 34-28 (+6) at Castle Park. Therefore over both games Carnegie scored 55 points to the Knights’ 54, so Carnegie would have won by one point over both matches, which is the format of the Play-offs; total score over both legs.
At Headingly Carnegie scored three tries but the Knights also scored three tries, the difference was Harry leonard converted all three tries plus added two penalty kicks. Two conversions and one penalty were missed but then Dougie took over the kicking duties and converted one try and scored one penalty kick. If all attempts at goal had been successful, it would have been 27-27. At Castle Park the Knights scored four tries to Carnegie’s four again. On this occasion all four tries were converted plus two penalties were both missed and scored by the Knights (not Dougie). Carnegie
Converted one and missed three conversions and both early penalties were scored. Again the scores would have been equal if Carnegie had scored all of their attempts at goal. You could add that if the Knights had converted both of their penalty kicks then they would have scored six more points. This places the advantage with the Knights! On both games the try-scoring was equal, the kicks were the only difference between the teams. The Knights must remember that they finished second in the Championship after 22 games and Carnegie finished behind us in third. Additionally Dougie’s back and the Knights didn’t pick up any injuries against the Welsh exiles.
If the score is going to be as close again over both matches, the Knights must ensure that it is in their favour in order to face Bristol or Bedford Blues in the final.
Last time out the Knights lost to London Welsh but they know why and can easily solve that. As the website reported, “The Knights played twenty minutes of the first half with at least one player in the sin bin culminating in a 17-5 half time deficit at Rosslyn Park. Typically, Donny fought back and lead on the hour mark but the Exiles had the last laugh as full back Chris Elder score the last try of the game to secure a 24-19 win.
The loss makes no difference to the Knights who wrapped up second place last weekend and the losing bonus point means that the side finish ahead of Carnegie by points, not just number of wins.”
There is no point looking at the various stats because they are irrelevant in local derbies, even less relevant when both teams have been so close with their performances. One league point to the Knights or a point’s difference of 68 (three/game) to Carnegie sum up how close the teams have been over the whole season. Looking ahead; we didn’t pick-up injuries even though it was a ‘different-look’ Knights that went down to Rosslyn Park. The game demonstrated that despite us having a relatively small squad and despite the result, we have strength in depth according to the report on performance.
C’mon Knights start the game firing on all cylinders and don’t play catch-up.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
More importantly head-to-head this season; on Fri 9th Oct, 2015 Carnegie beat the Knights 27-20 (+7) at Headingly, then on Sat 13th Feb, 2016 the Knights beat Carnegie 34-28 (+6) at Castle Park. Therefore over both games Carnegie scored 55 points to the Knights’ 54, so Carnegie would have won by one point over both matches, which is the format of the Play-offs; total score over both legs.
At Headingly Carnegie scored three tries but the Knights also scored three tries, the difference was Harry leonard converted all three tries plus added two penalty kicks. Two conversions and one penalty were missed but then Dougie took over the kicking duties and converted one try and scored one penalty kick. If all attempts at goal had been successful, it would have been 27-27. At Castle Park the Knights scored four tries to Carnegie’s four again. On this occasion all four tries were converted plus two penalties were both missed and scored by the Knights (not Dougie). Carnegie
Converted one and missed three conversions and both early penalties were scored. Again the scores would have been equal if Carnegie had scored all of their attempts at goal. You could add that if the Knights had converted both of their penalty kicks then they would have scored six more points. This places the advantage with the Knights! On both games the try-scoring was equal, the kicks were the only difference between the teams. The Knights must remember that they finished second in the Championship after 22 games and Carnegie finished behind us in third. Additionally Dougie’s back and the Knights didn’t pick up any injuries against the Welsh exiles.
If the score is going to be as close again over both matches, the Knights must ensure that it is in their favour in order to face Bristol or Bedford Blues in the final.
Last time out the Knights lost to London Welsh but they know why and can easily solve that. As the website reported, “The Knights played twenty minutes of the first half with at least one player in the sin bin culminating in a 17-5 half time deficit at Rosslyn Park. Typically, Donny fought back and lead on the hour mark but the Exiles had the last laugh as full back Chris Elder score the last try of the game to secure a 24-19 win.
The loss makes no difference to the Knights who wrapped up second place last weekend and the losing bonus point means that the side finish ahead of Carnegie by points, not just number of wins.”
There is no point looking at the various stats because they are irrelevant in local derbies, even less relevant when both teams have been so close with their performances. One league point to the Knights or a point’s difference of 68 (three/game) to Carnegie sum up how close the teams have been over the whole season. Looking ahead; we didn’t pick-up injuries even though it was a ‘different-look’ Knights that went down to Rosslyn Park. The game demonstrated that despite us having a relatively small squad and despite the result, we have strength in depth according to the report on performance.
C’mon Knights start the game firing on all cylinders and don’t play catch-up.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
