Greene King IPA Championship Table at End of Reg. Season

[SelimNiai]

So, at the end of the regular season Bristol top the league after going on a 13 wins-in-a-row run. We play Rotherham in the playoff semi and Leeds play London Welsh in the other. Ealing are relegated but lots of credit to them to make it a final day decision as they looked dead and buried at one point. Doncaster get promoted from National League One.

Now it gets serious.

SEMI FINAL FIXTURES:

Bristol v Rotherham. Sat May 10, 14:45ko
Leeds v L. Welsh. Sun May 11, 13:00ko

Rotherham vs Bristol, Sat May 17, 18:05ko
L. Welsh v Leeds, Sun May 18, 12:45ko

All games on SKY

 

[LSFC C49]

Real ding donger between your guys and ours yesterday, great display of running rugby with your 'new'(?) guys all laying down their claims for a spot in the play-offs.

Commiserations to Ealing, I've heard a rumour that they're getting James Love from us. If that transpires he's one of the best boots in England and should give them a good chance of bouncing back.

Jersey laid down their first bonus point win of the season at Goldington Road which was no mean feat after being left bottom after our win against them last week, so congratulations to them. Looking forward to our games next year. I think we might have been on the poach for one of their pack

 

[SelimNiai]

Its been a feature/philosophy of our play this year. We've aimed to score tries and in getting 21 Bonus Points we've done it. We leak points but usually later in the game. I wonder if we'll keep that going into these massive games, especially as that arguably cost us at LW earlier in the season.

Just saw a tweet from our statman;

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Bristol_RFC">@Bristol_RFC</a> scored 116 tries in 23 league games ave 5.04 per game, previous best 120 in 26 games 2004/05 at 4.62 per game</p>&mdash; Neil Williams (@BrisRugStatto) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisRugStatto/statuses/460449834164830208">April 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[LSFC C49]

Would have been good if once you had tailed off, we'd kept going, but tries were exchanged blow by blow from the get go, 24-40 at half time, and we only managed 1 to your 2 in the second half.

We seem to have managed to get 2 of the top 3 try scorers this season. Our lad Miles Mantella's brace meant he pipped your Blues bound try machine George Watkins by one, with our 35 year old skipper Mark Bright rolling back the years to post 16 from no.8.

Amazing that you've landed 111 tries and with only 2 players in the top 20 scorers accounting for less than 25% of your total. That shows a great all round strength. At lower end of the stats it looks like almost every Bristol player has got in the act this season with 33 try scorers to our 18.

 

[Patchey]

Really thought Ealing would make it, we rallied quite well and scored four tries against Rotherham just left it too late. Hopefully we can bounce back up, although I get the feeling the Championship is going to be tought for us unless some serious money comes into the club.


A question on Bristol and all the players they've signed, does anyone know if failing to get promoted would effect these deals? The Championship play-offs can be a bit of a lottery and despite finishing top Bristol aren't 100% confirmed to go up. Some fairly big names appear to be taking quite a risk on signing with them.

 

[BrisPete]

According to the club all of those who have signed for Bristol for next season will be with us regardless of which league we are in. Hoping it'll be the Premiership though - and I guess they all are too.

 

[Shaggy]

Would have been good if once you had tailed off, we'd kept going, but tries were exchanged blow by blow from the get go, 24-40 at half time, and we only managed 1 to your 2 in the second half.

We seem to have managed to get 2 of the top 3 try scorers this season. Our lad Miles Mantella's brace meant he pipped your Blues bound try machine George Watkins by one, with our 35 year old skipper Mark Bright rolling back the years to post 16 from no.8.

Amazing that you've landed 111 tries and with only 2 players in the top 20 scorers accounting for less than 25% of your total. That shows a great all round strength. At lower end of the stats it looks like almost every Bristol player has got in the act this season with 33 try scorers to our 18.

So that's ex-ITM Cup, Tasman Makos, Mark Bright ... I didn't realise he was playing in England, great to see he's still playing and scoring tries

 

[LSFC C49]

Yes he had five years down at Redruth in Cornwall, where I believe he has godlike status, whilst also keeping it going all year round playing for Makos. He must have impressed our then Head Coach Simon Amor so much in our games in National One that he was given the chance to come with us when we won promotion to Tier 2 in 2011. He has had a pivotal role in maintaining our Championship status for the past 3 years, skippering for the past 2.