Post by Jamie Crawford on Oct 24, 2017 21:36:39 GMT
Game seven; Sun 29th Oct, 2017 - 03:00pm
After two B & I Cup games we return to Championship action against the marauding Pirates from Penzance. Last time out in the Championship Hartpury College beat us but at least we gained a losing bonus point so we're still third. We are just one point above Nottingham and Bedford.
It was a nice 22-33 win over Bristol in the B & I Cup last week. OK it wasn't the full Bristol team that we'll face in the Championship but you can only play (& beat) the team in front of you. It sounded like a very positive performance from the Knights. A Bristol supporter reckoned that they finished the game with ten academy players, nine teenagers on the pitch and he thinks four debutants. He went on to add that they are training in a 'Premiership' environment alongside experienced internationals so he would hope they would carry out their systems a bit more effectively. Bristol almost has a Premiership budget plus their parachute payment from the RFU, so their Academy players would probably be in other Championship first teams.
It's nice to restart the league campaign with a win ready to face the Pirates in a very buoyant mood. From what I gather the major take-away from the games was the Knights’ performance rather than the win.
The Knights are faring well in the Championship, in third place with four wins and two losses from their six games played. The Pirates are eighth with just one win to their name so far this season. Despite their eighth place, the Pirates have scored 24 more points than the Knights but have conceded 79 more points. In terms of tries scored, this equates to the Pirates being the fifth highest try-scorers in the Championship after scoring a brace more than the Knights in equal—eighth.
Pirate Fly Half/Full Back Laurence May is the third highest points-scorer in the Championship with 68 points, six above our own Simon Humberstone. The Pirate Wing/Full Back Kyle Moyle is the second highest try-scorer in the division with six tries scored over six games. Prop Thomas Cowan Dickie and Wing Alex O’Meara are their second with three tries under their belts.
Backs have scored about 60% of Pirate tries and the Forwards the bulk of the rest but the Pirates have also been awarded two penalty tries. Although this can probably be credited to the Forwards, there is no guarantee. Only Bedford Blues’ Wingers have scored more tries than Pirate Wingers. Next up are the Front Row with four tries, three more than the Knights’ Front Row.
Other fixtures on this October weekend whose results could affect us are:
Ealing Trailfinders (2nd, 4 points above) drive up to Yorkshire to play the yet-to-win Rotherham Titans (12th)
Nottingham (4th, 1point below) host eighth-placed Richmond at Lady Bay
Bedford Blues (5th, 1 point below) travel to Headingley to play Carnegie (6th, 4 points below)
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
