Post by Jamie Crawford on Mar 21, 2017 9:27:40 GMT
Sunday 26th March 15.00 Cornish Pirates v Doncaster Knights The Mennaye
After our fantastic win against second-placed Carnegie it’s on to our last away game of the season against sixth-placed Cornish Pirates. We only have two games left in the normal season after this game, both at home but hopefully we will be in the Promotion Play-offs and extend our season. Ealing Trailfinders, Jersey Reds and the Pirates will also be hoping to join London Irish and Carnegie in the top four. So it’s essentially down to two of four teams chasing third and fourth positions.
London Scottish in seventh are sixteen points below us with just three games to play and so can’t even hope of reaching the Play-Offs.
Looking up the table we are now six points below Carnegie with two games to play. IF we did manage to overtake Carnegie to reach second place, we would then not have to play London Irish in the first round of the Play-Offs.
Quote from our website, “…It looked like game over when Dougie Flockhart kicked a 68th minute penalty after the Knights scored a third try through Andy Bulumakau but the fourteen-point cushion reenergised the Leeds side who scored nine unanswered points to set up an incredibly nervy finish…” A truly valiant performance to prevent Carnegie from scoring with two players fewer.
In addition to us beating Carnegie without a try bonus point, Ealing Trailfinder’s bonus point win over Nottingham means that we find ourselves in fourth place, one point below the Trailfinders but with a game in hand – to be played this Sunday.
The Knights have only managed to outscore the Pirates by fifteen points over eighteen games, so less than a point per game. The Pirates have conceded 57 more points as the Knights continue to be second only to the Irish exiles in the number of points conceded. Purely on previous points scored and conceded the Knights will win 9-0, so both teams are very closely matched.
Full Back/Wing Kyle Moyle and Back Row Tom Duncan are the Pirate’s top try-scorers with half a dozen each. Full Back Sam Simmonds and Wing/Full Back Matt Evens have only scored a couple fewer. Pirate tries to date this season have been scored predominantly down the wings, by a Full Back or by a Back Row. The tries scored by position shows dominance (nearly a third) by the Back Row. As 22% have been scored by Wingers and just three by Full Backs, Moyle and Evans were probably playing on the Wing when they scored and Simmonds was most likely playing in a Wing position. We need to be especially wary of quick hand out wide, overlaps and the Back Row peeling off the set piece.
Fly Half/Full Back Laurence May has a kicking strike rate of 79%, so kickable penalties will be punished, as ever but more so than normal, discipline is needed.
Wings have scored the most tries against the Pirates followed by the Front Row before the Back Row. The Front Row have scored the fourth highest amount in the Championship in that position against the Pirates so perhaps the Knights want to exploit that.
We now look at results that could possibly affect us finishing in the top four and the Promotion Play-offs, not only in one game but over two or three games:
Jersey Reds (5th, 6 points below) host unbeaten London Irish at St Peter’s on Saturday 25th March
Carnegie welcome bottom–placed Richmond to Headingly on Sunday.
We (4th) play the Pirates (6th) at The Mennaye on Sunday.
The Mennaye is a notoriously difficult place to be victorious but our recent away form plus last Sunday’s home form leaves us feeling confident and the merciless Pirates will be nervous of playing the virtuous Knights from the North. A win against the Pirates would exclude them from the possibility of reaching us and the Play-Offs before the end of the season because even if we only won without a try bonus point and the Pirates gained a losing bonus point, they would be twelve points below us with two games to play. A Pirate win would keep them in contention of finishing in the Top Four, so it’s all to play for.
The Trailfinders don’t have a game this weekend and so it will allow the chasing teams to catch up with the number of games played. It will hopefully allow us to overtake them into third with two games to play. Neither the Reds nor the Pirates could catch us or the Trailfinders this weekend.
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
Remember a win against the Pirates will virtually guarantee the Knights being in the Play-Offs.
