MORE MATCH REPORTS...

IN FINAL WHISTLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English rugby's new Championship launches into it’s second season on 28th August 2010, with a new format and the ultimate prize of a place in the Aviva Premiership.

The 12-club tournament, formerly National Division One, sees each team play 11 games, home and away, in a league format. Then the drama of the play offs begins, with eight teams vying for promotion and four battling it out against relegation.

The promotion play offs will start with the top eight from the league tournament making up two pools of four teams. After each team has played home and away against the others in its pool, the top two from each pool enter into the semi finals, hoping to progress to the play off final at Twickenham Stadium.

The bottom four teams from the regular season will be entered into a similar relegation play off pool, and after each team has played the other home and away, the bottom team in the pool will be relegated to the newly named National League One. 

The RFU have put together a short video introducing the teams and the CHampionship this season, so to have a look, just click below:

Last season saw Bristol Rugby top the final table before the play offs, closely followed by Exeter Chiefs. But the play offs turned Exeter's fortunes, and in the two-leg final, they narrowly beat Bristol at home 9-6, and then convincingly hammered them away 29-10, and were promptly promoted to the 12th team in the Aviva Premiership.

In a role reversal, it was unlucky Worcester Warriors that were relegated from the final Guinness Premiership, so now begin their bid to fight their way back into the hard-fought English premiership division with an opening home match against Birmingham & Solihull.

The final change to the second year of the RFU Championship is the entrance of Esher Rugby, who lost only one league match last season to secure promotion.

If last year is anything to go by, this season's RFU Championship will atournament to watch closely for nailk-biting action.

And don't forget that all fixtures and results are available in the Ultimate Rugby Calendar:

 

 

---

 

WEEK 3

Worcester Warriors maintained their winning record as they beat Rotherham Titans 32-25 at Sixways. The home side took a clear lead of 10-0 before three tries gave Rotherham a slender lead by the last quarter. With 10 minutes left to go, Ed Shervington scored a winning try and a final penalty from Joe Carlisle secured the Warriors position at the top of the table.

Bedford Blues enjoyed a comfortable 31-9 win over Esher Rugby at Goldington Road. The Blues led 17-9 at half time, and within 5 minutes Darryl Veenendaal dived under the posts with captain and Canadian International, James Pritchard adding the conversion. A total of four unanswered tries saw the visitors suffer their first defeat of the Championship.

Plymouth Albion were trailing by just 7 points with ten minutes to go on the clock thanks to a  Cameron Mitchell try, but a clever intercept on Nottingham’s try line saw Ben Johnston charge the length of the pitch to score 4 minutes from time. The home side then rubbed salt in the wound by scoring a final converted try in injury time, winning 37-16 and leaving Plymouth with their third loss in a row.

London Welsh hosted Birmingham & Solihull at the Old Deer Park. The Welsh exiles were determined to fight back after their loss to the Cornish Pirates last week, and it showed with the home side securing a four try bonus point. The visitors scored all three penalty points in the first half courtesy of Simon Hunt’s boot, and Welsh went into half time with a 15-9 lead thanks to tries from Liam Gibson and Marc Breeze. The Pacific Island contingent of London Welsh proved very useful as debutant, Epi Taione and Hudson Tonga’uiha aided in Josh Drauninui and Aled Thomas’ tries in the second half, the final score at 33-9.

Bristol Rugby suffered their third consecutive loss against Doncaster Knights 12-26. The home side opened the scoring with a try from Sean Marsden. But the Knights replied with a prompt try from Andrew Boyde off the back of an intercept, and thus the tone was set for the match. Doncaster’s fly half, Tristan Roberts had a stonking run scoring 16 of the 26 points they went into half time with in answer to Bristol’s 5. Just minutes into the second half, Ollie Hayes scored for the home side and replacement fly half Adrian Jarvis added the conversion, but these were to be the last points of the game.

Meanwhile in the Midlands, Moseley and the Cornish Pirates ended their game all square at 26-26, and though the visitors picked up 2 points for the draw, Moseley secured a bonus point with four tries following a close-fought battle.

RESULTS

Saturday 11th September, 2010
Bedford Blues 31 - 9 Esher Rugby
London Welsh 33 - 9 Birmingham & Solihull
Moseley 26 - 26 Cornish Pirates
Worcester Warriors 32 - 25 Rotherham Titans

Sunday 12th September, 2010
Bristol Rugby 12 - 26 Doncaster Knights
Nottingham Rugby 37 - 16 Plymouth Albion

 

---

WEEK 2

Worcester Warriors surged to the top of the table after a hard-fought battle against Plymouth Albion to finally win 26-19. The home side led for almost 60 minutes of the match before former England fly half, Andy Goode thumped over a hat-trick of penalties, and Warriors’ Miles Benjamin also helped the cause with his hat-trick of tries for the visitors.

London Welsh managed to muster just a single penalty on their trip out to Penzance; the Cornish Pirates moved up to second place in the league table, whilst the Welsh Exiles could not take advantage of being two men up at one point. In fact, the only hat trick seen at Mennaye Field was that of yellow cards for the home side.

Newly promoted Esher Rugby won their second game in a row to move up to third place despite a scare at their first home game against Bristol Rugby. The visitors were up 17-3 early on the match, but Esher pulled back and narrowed the gap to 10-17 by half time. The second half saw Esher come out with a mission, they had pulled ahead to 29-20 by the final quarter. The final quarter saw Bristol have a try held up, and though they did manage a converted score, the visitors missed their final penalty for Esher to win by a narrow margin 29-27.

Rotherham Titans struggled against Bedford Blues and were down 13-0 before Juan Pablo Socino struck a penalty after 35 minutes. Despite numerous handling errors, the home side fought hard and thanks to extra time, managed to score a converted try in extra time to win the match 19-16.

Elsewhere in the division Moseley secured their first win of the new campaign after beating Doncaster Knights 23-16 away from home.

Birmingham & Solihull remain the only side yet to secure a single point as they lost 28-41 to Nottingham Rugby at their new ground, Damson Park.

RESULTS

Saturday 4th September, 2010
Doncaster Knights 16 - 23 Moseley
Esher Rugby 29 - 27 Bristol Rugby
Plymouth Albion 19 - 26 Worcester Warriors

Sunday 5th September, 2010
Birmingham & Solihull 28 - 41 Nottingham Rugby
Cornish Pirates 22 - 3 London Welsh
Rotherham Titans 19 - 16 Bedford Blues

 

---

WEEK 1

BEDFORD Blues topped the RFU Championship table ahead of promotion favourites Worcester Warriors after the opening weekend saw both sides chalk up thumping home bonus-point victories over Plymouth Albion and Birmingham & Solihull, respectively.

The Blues ran riot at Goldington Road, notching eight tries with former Leicester academy centre Ollie Dodge bagging a hat-trick while Canadian Test full-back James Pritchard touched down twice with Sacha Harding, Duncan Taylor and Dan Richmond adding a try apiece.

Pritchard kicked 11 points in a contest which was pretty much one-way traffic from the off with Bedford taking the game away from Albion in a ten-minute second-half spell which saw them open up a 32-3 lead while Plymouth scrum- Ruairi Cushion was in the sin bin.

Worcester, meanwhile, cruised to a predictable six-try 48-3 win over the Bees at Sixways, where tries from open-side Jake Abbott and wing Marcel Garvey earned the Warriors a 20-3 half-time lead with Birmingham’s only reply coming in the shape of lone Simon Hunt penalty.

After the break, Worcester stepped up the pace to run in tries from centre Rob Higgitt, full-back Tom Arscott, replacement hooker Aleki Lutui and a penalty try conceded by the under-pressure Birmingham pack rounded off an easy home win.

Promoted Esher opened up their championship campaign with a hugely encouraging 29-17 away win at Moseley, coming out on top at the end of a competitive contest which produced six tries.

Esher fly-half Whitbread’s 11-point haul from three penalties and a conversion proved to be the telling factor after the visitors built a 21-5 half-time lead.

Esher’s tries came from full-back Jonny Hylton, scrum half Clive Stuart-Smith and loose-head Dave Millard, while Moseley hit back with touchdowns from Brad Davies, Chevvy Pennycook and David Lyons after the break.

London Welsh, with six debutants in their starting line-up, chalked up an important bonus-point away win over Nottingham at Meadow Lane on Sunday.

All of the home side’s points came from ex-Newport Gwent Dragons and Japanese international fly-half James Arlidge, who kicked seven penalties, but Welsh mustered more creativity and two tries from ex-Saracens wing Josh Drauniniu with wing Liam Gibson and centre Simon Whatling also touching down.

The Cornish Pirates opened up with a four-tries-to-two, 30-14 bonus-point home win Doncaster Knights to join the group at the top of the table after turning a 20-0 half-time lead into a win which could have been tighter had the Knights turned their share of possession and territory into more tries.

Phil Burgess, Gavin Cattle, Alan Paver and Jonny Bentley ran in the Pirates’ tries with wing Matty Williams getting both of the Knights’ touchdowns.

The biggest shock of the opening weekend came at the Memorial Stadium, where a dramatic last-gasp conversion from Argentinean centre Juan Pablo Socino earned Rotherham Titans a 26-24 win over Bristol, silencing an expectant and highly partisan 4,064 crowd.

The Titans came back from 18-10 down at half-time to snatch victory from a Bristol side which was reduced to 13 men in the dying minutes by two sin-binnings.

Sam Dickinson grabbed the vital Titans try, adding to an earlier effort from James Sandford, while ex-Bath fly-half Nicky Little and back-rower James Merriman crossed for Bristol, who looked to have grabbed the edge in the last quarter after Little and Socino kicked four penalties apiece.

Little missed a conversion but Socino held his nerve at the death and his under-pressure kick proved to be the difference between the two sides.

RESULTS

Saturday 28th August 2010
Bedford Blues 51-3 Plymouth Albion
Moseley 17-29 Esher
Worcester Warriors 48-3 Birmingham & Solihull

Sunday 29th August 2010
Bristol Rugby 24-26 Rotherham Titans
Cornish Pirates 30-14 Doncaster Knights
Nottingham 21-27 London Welsh