The Update (4/4/22)

WELL, it's done for another season. Ealing, predictably, given their unflinching backing from Mike Gooley, prevailed on the final day of the season, putting them in the final promotion hot-seat for a couple of years.

Or does it?

They now face a much harder battle. A war against entrenched interests at the very top of the Pro game in England. A war that no side can win.

Look at the potential outcomes: Ealing mobilize their legal team, in the way that London Welsh did a few years ago, and win the right to be promoted. But what awaits them? The right to buy their way into the 'elite' at huge financial cost, always assuming that the existing thirteen snouts in the trough permit that?

How long can one man's purse sustain that?

Yes, inevitably their crowds will increase in size (the London 'floating vote' of transient 'who's playing locally to me this weekend?' types will ensure that) but can they increase sufficiently to fund a tilt at any more than the bottom half of the Prem? Emphatically not. Just look at the likes of Bath, Worcester, Newcastle etc for confirmation of that.

Those very institutions that hold out the palms of their hands to block the upstart ambitious incomer are selfishly cutting their own noses off to spite their own faces.

Good luck to Ealing in their upcoming fight, but personally I can see little good coming of this whatever happens while we are still led by donkeys.

I saw a reference somewhere this weekend (Rugby Paper?) to France's model. A professional ladder from top to bottom, nationally, and with relatively unfettered access - both up and down. And just look at what happened to the France national team last season. Imagine what England could do with that kind of support from the game in general. Snort...

Richmond Athletic Ground really hasn't been too much of a happy hunting ground for Cov – until last season. A big win over Richmond was almost mirrored this time round, with six tries going in for the second Saturday in a row, and an almost immaculate record from the boot in the conversion stakes.

We won't mention a particular game against a certain exile side a few months ago, though. Not at all.

However, two away wins on the bounce put a certain gloss on things, moving the club up the table somewhat. Sadly some of that gain was lost this weekend when 'Plucky Ampthill' secured that rare thing, a three-point draw, at Penzance to leapfrog Cov. However, given the travails of the earlier parts of the season when it was beginning to look feasible that 10^th place might be beckoning, I'll happily take eighth.

Further study of the table reveals that Cov's win record of nine victories exceeds those of the two sides above them with Hartpury on seven wins, and Ampthill on eight. Indeed, fifth-placed Bedford only managed to secure nine wins themselves.

The value of bonus points, eh? One more of the pesky things would have seen a sixth place finish. Still, given the (lack of) performance rewards forthcoming from the ruling body, what's the point of such musings?

Coventry Moulton Academy continued to demonstrate its value to the club on Friday night, when in front of a crowd that would be the envy of some at Championship level, the Under 23s despatched a UK Armed Forces XV with considerable aplomb.

The squad has grown in stature over the recent weeks, and can be justifiable proud of where they are.

These are lads who could well be regulars in the Cov First XV within a year or so (or less, as some have already ably demonstrated).

The future's Blue & White.

Elsewhere in the Rugby Paper, John Newcombe lavished unstinting praise on the departing colossus that is Ryan 'Buzz' Burrows.

Buzz will certainly be badly missed next term, and whoever is given the unenviable task of filling his boots will be subject to extensive scrutiny from the terraces.

Tiki has excelled at Eight in the Army games this season, and a similar performance at the end of the month at Twickenham will surely put him in the driving seat for that berth.

Cov could do much, much worse.