The Exiles versus the Exiles??

By Zandra LaPoi
March 7 2013

So here we are at the business end of the season. The Exiles, whoops, Leeds have only a few games left in order to prove their worth. Add to that another one of our ‘On the Road’ games and you have a wonderful recipe for a complete nervous breakdown for the ‘Die Hards’ amongst us. I fully agree with what HaxbyTyke posted earlier in the week, this game should have been moved to Otley. The boys know Otley now and it is not that far from HC so we should be able to muster a crowd capable of cheering the team on to victory. Remember the ‘People’s Try’ last week? We so need more of them. However, as we are playing a very important game at what can only be described as a neutral venue, 40-odd miles away from our home, I am not sure that will be possible..........

Anyway, enough of my ramblings on that subject, let’s have a look at our opponents this weekend, London Scottish, aka The Exiles.

Since December they have seen an improvement in form that you have to see to believe. So much so, if you check out the Form Guide for the last 6 Championship games, Scottish are second, only the unbeaten Budgies ahead of them, with five wins and one loss. To compare, we are near the bottom, with two wins and four losses.

Scottish have put the following Teams to their sword, Jersey, Pirates, Nottingham, Donny and Bedford, in fact Scottish’s last defeat was to the Budgies just before Christmas, then they only just lost out 12 – 9. If only we had that form at the moment I would be not as grey as I am and not having to spend a fortune on highlights and herbal-calm remedies. .

So, who are the Scottish Dangermen?

James Love (see image above), who has lovely, long-flowing, golden locks, nearly matched our own Cleggy last weekend, with the Full Back / Winger, kicking 21 of Scottish’s 41 points against Jersey. His season’s haul is 188 points, so hopefully a massive improvement in our discipline will not allow him to take pot-shots at the posts all afternoon. We can’t keep relying on the opposition’s kicker slipping on his run up, although it is bloomin’ funny especially when the slip belongs to St Jimmy!!

Next up are three, two of whom are forwards. Mark Bright, the No 8 has bagged six tries this season, his openside, backrow colleague, Chevvy Pennycock (I love his name), has bagged five. With our pack improving of late, hopefully they will stop these two dictating the game.

Then we have left winger, Miles Mantella, also on five, but no match for our Doc who has bagged 12.

So, what about our own Mighty Carnegies?

Scotty Freer was immense last week when he came on, and as much as it pains me to say it (I love my favourite, sans-shorts hooker), if DE thinks he has regained his match fitness, I think he might get a start with ASBO on the bench.

Provided Cleggy is still with us and hasn’t popped back to HairyQuins for another bench-warming exercise, after last week, he will keep his place. After that, I would keep things as they were against Pirates. Hopefully DE has bottled what he said or did at half-time last week, so he can do it pre-match this week. We are the masters of our own destiny now, all we can do is play well, win and hope Bris slip up at some point. Then we are in Play-Off Nirvana and the stress starts again.

With Scottish’s recent form, this game will be slightly closer than when we met back in November and we ran out 14 – 37 winners, in fact I predict this will be an almighty, high scoring tussle.