It's playoff time!

[bristol-iain]

So Bristol win the league and get promoted....not yet.

First comes the pointless spectacle of the playoffs. Basically the top 8 sides split into 2 groups of 4 with Bris, Bedford, The Pasties and Plymouth in one and Exeter, London Welsh, Nottingham and Donny in t'other. Each will play h+a until the top 2 in each (Bristol and Exeter most likley) meet at Twickers to decide who goes up.

Bristol start with a home game against the Pasties which if you would like to listen will be (probably) on BBC Bristol so go to the iplayer and search BC Radio Bristol, failing that your Bristol correspondant will bring you updates from the game, which will most likley go ignored <_<

Luke Arscott; Lee Robinson, Luke Eves, Junior Fatialofa, Dan Norton, Adrian Jarvis, Jason Spice ©; Mark Irish, Ross Johnston, Wayne Thompson, James Phillips, Nathan Budgett, Iain Grieve, Redford Pennycook, Dan Montagu

Ollie Hayes, Darren Crompton, Darren Barry, James Merriman, Robbie Shaw, Mark Davies, Jack Adams

 

[Olyy]

The bottom two of the championship are Coventry and Birmingham/Solihul (with the latter being on an aweinspiring.... -9). Makes you proud to be from the midlands

 

[bristol-iain]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Olyy @ Mar 19 2010, 06:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

The bottom two of the championship are Coventry and Birmingham/Solihul (with the latter being on an aweinspiring.... -9). Makes you proud to be from the midlands [/b]

Dunno what has gone wrong at Brum, when they were the Pertemps Bees a few years ago they were very tough opponents, one of the hardest teams we came across, same story with Rotherham.

 

[bristol-iain]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_bristol/

Commentary from 8pm

 

[bristol-iain]

Pasties 3-0 up

3 all now, Jarvis penalty

Bristol Try. Iain Greive scores after pressure on Pasties line. Conversion good. 10-3

 

[bristol-iain]

Pastie penalty after a poor call by ref.

10-6

 

[bristol-iain]

Its 10-6 at half-time. Poor conditions at the Mem, sounds like we are playing the better but lack the final pass to cross the line. Pasties came more into the game as half went on and are playing direct within the forwards.

Confident of winning from here

 

[Olyy]

Part of me wants Cornwall to win, just because they've got "Pirates" in their name

 

[bristol-iain]

Penalty to the Pasties

10-9.

Pasties started much better in 2nd half.

13-9 Bris after a Jarvis penalty

16-9 Bris. Jarvis 100% kicking so far

 

[bristol-iain]

Another Pasties penalty

16-12, Jarvis doing a Wilkinson impression, kicking far too much and not allowing our better backs to play.

 

[bristol-iain]

Well that was harder than it should have been. Jarvis scores a penalty with last kick of match to win it 19-12. Far from perfect but a win is a win, we won it up front in the loose and in the lineout.

 

[bristol-iain]

Bristol lose in the playoffs

The one thing that has worried me about our promotion charge is our away form, especially as 1 more loss makes it very difficult to make the semi-finals. We now have back to back games against Plymouth. As it stands the Promotions groups are:

Pool A

Bedford Blues 2 2 0 0 27 25 2 0 8
Cornish Pirates 2 1 0 1 29 19 10 1 5
Bristol Rugby 2 1 0 1 35 29 6 1 5
Plymouth Albion 2 0 0 2 9 27 -18 1 1

Pool B

Exeter Chiefs 2 1 0 1 41 26 15 1 5
London Welsh 2 1 0 1 32 42 -10 1 5
Nottingham 2 1 0 1 35 34 1 0 4
Doncaster 2 1 0 1 35 41 -6 0 4

 

[GazzaJAnimal]

It looks more open in pool B. What with one point separating the four sides. On Saturday Doncaster face Exeter and Nottingham travel to London Welsh. I'm going to stick my neck out and go for home wins on those two. And then hope I'm right for 'Donny'!

 

[SelimNiai]

Massive win for Bristol last Saturday, beating Plymouth 38-7 to go top of Pool A and look to be assured of a Semi place to make sure we avoid Exeter we will need to win at least one of our 2 games left starting at home to Bedford this weekend. It's a case of who finishes 2nd in the other pool as Exeter look to have that sorted. And in the relegation pool Moseley sit on the trapdoor and Birmingham who finished the season on -9 points and rock bottom of the table can still stay up.

PROMOTION POOL A

1 Bristol Rugby 4 3 0 1 88 39 2 14
2 Bedford Blues 4 3 0 1 87 65 2 14
3 Cornish Pirates 4 2 0 2 69 79 1 9
4 Plymouth Albion 4 0 0 4 19 80 1 1

and

PROMOTION POOL B

1 Exeter Chiefs 4 3 0 1 113 60 2 14
2 Nottingham 4 2 0 2 74 63 2 10
3 London Welsh 4 2 0 2 61 81 1 9
4 Doncaster 4 1 0 3 69 113 1 5

RELEGATION POOL

1 Rotherham ***ans 4 4 0 0 121 71 4 20
2 Birmingham-Solihull 4 2 0 2 85 97 0 8
3 Coventry 3 1 0 2 27 54 1 5
4 Moseley 3 0 0 3 49 60 4 4

Could be worse, could be Manchester RFC in National Leaue 1


16 Manchester 27 0 0 27 111 2296 0 -2

 

[TRF_Olyy]

So it's shaping up to be Bristol v Nottingham and Exeter v Bedford for the semis?

A Bristol v Exeter final would be a cracking match

 

[SelimNiai]

Bristol set up a home semi final against London Welsh after thra-hash-ing The Cornish Pasties 60-15 to top Group A. In the Other Semi Bedford will travel to Exeter.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Dam was hoping London Welsh would get an easier opponent than Bristol

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Should be a Bristol/Exeter final then,
Can't wait, should be a cracking match (two matches?), could go either way, though i expect Bristol to move up to the GP

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Dont count your chickens early against London Welsh ... can surprise anyone on their day.