Week 13 - round 13 national league 1 previews...

...Saturday 5th December 2015 including Darlington Mowden Park v Coventry Rugby.

Fixtures Week 13 Saturday 5th December 2015.

Ampthill & District                     v        Hull Ionians

Blackheath                                   v        Fylde

Cinderford                                    v       Blaydon

Darlington Mowden Park          v       Coventry Rugby

Henley Hawks                              v       Esher

Loughborough Students            v       Richmond

Rosslyn Park                                 v      Hartpury College

Wharfedale                                  v      Plymouth Albion

Week 13 sees the top 2 sides Hartpury College and Richmond face difficult away trips, with both Blackheath and Esher waiting in the wings to take full advantage in case of any slip-up. There are crucial games at the bottom with all 3 sides Cinderford, Wharfedale and Henley Hawks all facing equally difficult tasks.

It could be the defining game of the season for both Rosslyn Park and Hartpury College as they meet at the Rock. Park are still 13 points behind leaders Hartpury  after their away loss at Blaydon, need to get their title hopes back on track, otherwise the gap between them and Hartpury will be too great. A close game in prospect, with Rosslyn Park looking to defy the odds with a narrow victory.

Hoping for such a result will be 2nd placed Richmond as they travel to a Loughborough Students side, which at last is showing some better form. Last week they nearly pulled off a win at Hartpury so Richmond can’t take them too lightly. Yet Richmond’s better all round game and increasing confidence should just edge it.

If any of the top 2 lose then Blackheath are poised to take advantage and narrow the gap as they have Fylde as their visitors. However Fylde can be something of a conundrum, capable of being both brilliant and mundane, often in the same game. On the face of it home advantage might just give Blackheath the win, but it could be another game going down to the wire.

The team with the greatest expectation of pressing the top 3 is Esher as they face a short trip to relegation threatened Henley Hawks, whose recent form of 6 defeats has placed them in the final relegation spot. Henley will point to a better 2nd half display against Coventry, but they were heavily outclassed in the first half, and Esher will be confident of a large away victory.

Hoping for any sort of slip-up by the top 5 is Coventry Rugby as they face a difficult away trip to Darlington Mowden Park, especially if they play as badly there as they did last season. A full preview of this game will follow.

Bottom side Cinderford are surely now looking into the abyss unless they can quickly get some wins behind them, but in entertaining Blaydon ,whose recent form has seen them beat highly fancied Rosslyn Park and Esher, they face another uphill task. Even home form is no leveller for Cinderford but with the Blaydon pack back in normal mode a home win is highly unlikely.

Another relegation threatened side is 15th placed Wharfedale as they have a home fixture with an improving Plymouth Albion side, now up to 8th place. The Albion side, especially their pack are getting used to NL1 and their better confidence might be too strong for the Wharfedale side.

The final game sees a mid-table clash between 7th placed Ampthill & District and 10th placed Hull Ionians. A battle between two newly promoted sides sees an intriguing contest between an Ampthill side, which has recently come off the pace not helped by an injury crisis, whilst Hull Ionians will be pleased with their performance against Blackheath, which needed a late Blackheath try to win the game. If this game was football than a score draw would be favourite.

Darlington Mowden Park v Coventry Rugby match preview Saturday 5th December 2015.

This coming Saturday 5th December sees Coventry Rugby travel to the north-east to face Darlington Mowden Park at their Northern Echo Arena for a 3pm kick off. The club started off as Darlington Grammar School Old Boys in 1950, moving to Yiewsley Drive in 1970 when the name was changed to Mowden Park. As financial troubles enveloped Darlington Football Club leaving the football club to vacate the purpose built Northern Echo Arena , the Rugby club stepped in in 2012 buying the ground, which has a capacity of 25,000 although currently restricted to 10,000, and added Darlington to its name to more reflect the area it was in.

A steady move through the leagues saw them promoted to NL1 at the start of last season, with an initial ambition to reach the Championship. An ambitious club Darlington last season saw a steady increase in their crowds to an average of over a 1000, being second only to Coventry Rugby. This season they a vying with Coventry Rugby and Plymouth Albion to maintain an average of over a 1000.

Under head Coach Danny Brown and Coach John Newton DMP finished in 9th place last season, and currently they are in 11th place with 26 points from their 5 wins and 7 losses. The results mask the fact that due to World Cup commitments they were only able to play one of their first six games at home, and subsequently lost 5 of those 6 games. Since then they have won their last 3 games as indeed has Coventry Rugby. Their 5 wins were over Loughborough Students and Hull Ionians at home, with away victories at Cinderford, Plymouth Albion and last week at Fylde. Out their 7 losses the highest was 50-7 at Hartpury College, but held Richmond to just 1 point difference. Last season Coventry Rugby won their home fixture 29-17 after a DMP come back, but in a poor away display lost the return fixture 25-32.

Some key players left pre-season with centre Cameron Mitchell off to Richmond, Henry Robinson full-back to Rosslyn Park and Jack Allcock flanker also to Richmond. DMP have recruited heavily this season with influential scrum-half Bruno Bravo coming from Doncaster, centre Ben Frankland from Tynedale , hooker Santiago Socino from Hull Ionians, and Tomas Appleton from Portugal. Locks Tom Jubb and from Loughborough Students Ally Bone are backed up by flankers Luca Petillo from Italy and Rory Duff. Plymouth Albion have been raided for wingers Peter Homan and Jake Henry, other new backs include Michael Tait from Newcastle Falcons, full-back Matt Walsh and Chris Auld. Fly-half and goal-kicker Warren Seals has recently been recruited from Boland Province in South Africa. Australia.

There are a number of players Coventry Rugby will remember from last season with former Coventry prop Ignas Darkintas being signed from Ealing, and hooker/prop Simon Uzokwe backed up by fellow props Gareth Nesbitt, Ralph Appleby and Darren Fearn. Rob Conquest either as flanker or lock is still getting impressive reviews and is also backed up by flankers Joe Maud, Callum Mackenzie and Ollie Hodgson. 

Experienced fly-halfs  Gary Law and Grant Connon ,remain as well as centre Jamie Barnard and winger Tom Kill.

A key game for both sides as they both want to keep their unbeaten runs  going, in Coventry Rugby’s case to maintain pressure on the top 5 and for DMP to start moving up the table to match their undoubted ambitions.

For those supporters travelling to the north the full postal address of the ground is The Northern Echo Arena, Neasham Road, Darlington, DL2 1DL.

Tom Little

Coventry Rugby press office

2nd December 2015.