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Top three, bottom three? |
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Ollie B 
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Joined: 06 Jun 2025 Location: Wirral Status: Offline Points: 3 |
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 Topic: Top three, bottom three?Posted: 11 Jul 2025 at 20:58 |
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Who's going to finish top, who's going to finish bottom. The coming season is going to be of interest, will Worcester finish top or will it be Ealing, will Bedford , Doncaster or Coventry spring a suprise?
Will Cambridge Go down or is a new dawn on the horizon? Will Richmond struggle or caldy, can chinnor back up last season? Looking forward to this season and putting my neck out Ealing Bedford Worcester Richmond Cambridge Caldy. |
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The Blues
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Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Status: Offline Points: 5227 |
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Posted: 11 Jul 2025 at 23:02 |
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Ealing and Worcester are the teams to beat.
The next batch of 5 will be fighting for the next 4 play off spots I think will be Blues, Knights, Coventry, Pirates and Hartpury. I think probably Knights and Blues having the best chance to be the next best. But for a couple of close/silly losses for Blues, we could have taken Ealing to the end, but you always forget the few close wins too. I think overall our forwards have been upgraded from last season. Backs, it's good to have back up for Maisey and I think they should be the usual standard, although there are a few more new faces than normal. Bottom 3 it is hard to look past Caldy, Cambridge and Richmond. They will spring some surprises but won't be consistent. I am going to throw Ampthill though into that bottom 3 mix, with the DR rules, Scottish could be dragged into it too. |
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FHLH
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Cambridge Joined: 19 Apr 2009 Location: Cambridge Status: Offline Points: 5651 |
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Posted: 11 Jul 2025 at 23:29 |
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It's clear to me that Cambridge are recruiting within their limited budget. There may be some loan players and our new 3 year deal with Cambridge University may yield some players.
Top 3 Ealing Bedford Worcester or Doncaster Bottom 3 Cambridge Caley Ampthill or Scottish
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"My father told me big men fall just as quick as little ones, if you put a sword through their hearts."
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Donnyknightfan
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Joined: 28 Feb 2021 Location: Doncaster Status: Offline Points: 694 |
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Posted: Yesterday at 09:22 |
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From a Donny perspective, I am pretty confident that we will finish in the top 3. We’ve kept the core of last season’s team and and have bought in some good additions. The top end of the league looks as strong as it ever has, particularly with Worcester being back as well. I’d have Ealing favourites for top spot with Blues, Donny and Worcester all battling to finish 2nd.
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Donny Knights - best team in Yorkshire
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Bluesman11
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Joined: 13 May 2008 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1186 |
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Posted: Yesterday at 09:36 |
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My prediction, in order:
Top 3 (all capable of title) Ealing Doncaster Worcester Playoffs Bedford Coventry Pirates Upper Mid Table Hartpury Nottingham Lower mid table London Scottish Chinnor Ampthill Relegation/relegation playoffs Cambridge Richmond Caldy
Edited by Bluesman11 - Yesterday at 09:36 |
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Stalwart*
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Joined: 05 Dec 2024 Location: Penzance Status: Offline Points: 151 |
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Posted: Yesterday at 10:53 |
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I fancy Donny for top 3. They finished very strongly last season and have recruited well
Time for Cov to step up, I think they'll be close. I suppose it has to be Ealing and Wuss top two. I'll plump for Donny in 3rd. Can't tell about Scottish and their Quins link, so I'll go for Cambridge, Richmond, Caldy bottom 3. Edited by Stalwart* - Yesterday at 10:54 |
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Pirate
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JZSmith
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Joined: 27 Aug 2024 Location: England Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Posted: Yesterday at 11:51 |
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I'd pretty much agree with Bluesman11 although I'd switch Richmond and Ampthill.
I do know who I want to finish bottom. Not that I wish to see the Defaulters in the NL.
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dawson9
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Joined: 14 May 2025 Location: Essex Status: Online Points: 14 |
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Posted: Yesterday at 14:09 |
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Im hoping scottish continue their good form from the end of last season to finish above the bottom 3.
Actually quite excited to see us without the quins link qne hopefully picking a consistent team. always felt we are better when we consistently played our own guys rather than the 'pick the quins players name out of the hat' selection from earlier in the sesson. Top 3 will be decided on how quickly Worcester gel imo. With the squad they have on paper they should be finishing top easily, but may take them a while to get going. Cambridge bottom for me
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gerg_861
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Joined: 11 Jun 2017 Location: Ealing Status: Offline Points: 3031 |
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Posted: 21 hours 54 minutes ago at 18:05 |
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Top 3
Ealing - kept much more of the team together than usual. A couple of strong signings such as Caulfield and Hatherell. Hoping some academy kids step up too. Worcester- lots of big names, but quite long in the tooth. I think that they could fire out of the block and fade as we saw from Ealing in the past when they employed a similar recruitment strategy. Donny- Finished last year very strong. I think that they might have won a playoff last year if there had been one. Bottom 3 Caldy - the Ravers are a great community team, but they don't seem to be able to win away from home. Cambridge - massive turnover, they may surprise, but I doubt it. Looked woeful against Ealing last year. Ampthill- I have heard rumour that the money, such as ot was, has run out. Suspect they will be battered.
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Camquin
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Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Location: Cambridge Status: Offline Points: 12086 |
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Posted: 20 hours 4 minutes ago at 19:55 |
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Cambridge will do what they can, but budget is always the limiting factor. We will have a new gym, which may help. If we finish 12th I will be overjoyed. But I would take 13th and winning the pay-off. If we are relegated, then we might start winning again. |
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Sweeney Delenda Est
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TeflonTed
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Joined: 13 Apr 2025 Location: Worcs Status: Offline Points: 63 |
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Posted: 7 hours 42 minutes ago at 08:17 |
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Gerg861, I’m going to suggest you’re wrong in saying Wuss’s recruitment strategy was similar to that previously seen at Ealing.
Never before has a new management, with a head coach who’s never before been in sole charge at anywhere near this level, had to recruit an entire squad from scratch, with nothing previous to develop upon. The mix of ages is trying to achieve a quick start, clearly a good 12/14 or so of the squad have a couple of years at most left in them. There’s then a bunch of seasoned journeymen, and then the cohort of exciting youngsters who we hope will come good quickly. We have absolutely no idea how this is going to go, and much as Matt Everard has had some pretty good experience, we also really have no idea how he’s going to turn out as the man in charge. I don’t know enough to join in the prediction element here, but I do know that a good many supporters have absolutely no desire to get back to the prem in the first couple of years. We’ll be happy enough to be in the top 3 or 4 and have a go at the playoffs, if we’re not close to Bedford, Donny & Cov then somethings not working. Ealing are entirely a different animal. I was at FG to see them v Saints (2nd’s) in the cup game, and came away convinced they’d probably sort out Falcons and Exeter easily enough on a good day.
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TeflonTed, 2 miles from Sixways
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CAM1923
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Joined: 03 Jul 2025 Location: Moulton Status: Offline Points: 2 |
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Posted: 5 hours 14 minutes ago at 10:45 |
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I think Cambridge still have a significant number (10+) of player announcements to make so it’s currently difficult to assess the quality (or otherwise) of our match day squad. We will undoubtedly be a more competitive outfit next season but whether we’ll be good enough to avoid the relegation places remains to be seen. Can’t see beyond Ealing & Worcester for top spot and I imagine Bedford, Doncaster, Coventry & Pirates will make up the remaining play off places. At the wrong end of the table it’s highly likely that Caldy, Richmond & Ampthill will be vying with us to avoid the trap door to Nat1 even though that is no bad place to be. Great rugby clubs playing on a more level playing field creating much greater integrity throughout the league.
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Stalwart*
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Joined: 05 Dec 2024 Location: Penzance Status: Offline Points: 151 |
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Posted: 4 hours 37 minutes ago at 11:22 |
Hard to assess Pirates prospects, because we've lost a few very good players in key positions. Houston, fly half was exceptional - he's gone to France. Trewin, brilliant, fast, hard as nails full back/wing with great kicking game has gone to Worcester. Bokenham, great leader and influential No.8 has gone to Gloucester. McNab, powerhouse winger has gone to Doncaster. This happens every season and the coaches always seem to find brilliant young players who improve as the season goes on. Top 4 would be a heck of an achievement. |
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Pirate
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gerg_861
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Joined: 11 Jun 2017 Location: Ealing Status: Offline Points: 3031 |
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Posted: 4 hours 32 minutes ago at 11:27 |
Hi Ted - I'm glad you were at FGs for that match. Ealing played very well on the day, and very nearly took down Exeter with almost a first choice team the following week. If you see the recruitment strategy at Worcester as different, then that's fine. I do, however, believe that we'll see Worcester come tearing out of the gates, and then fade after a few injuries.
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Bluesman11
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Joined: 13 May 2008 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1186 |
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Posted: 4 hours 14 minutes ago at 11:45 |
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I’m not sure Ampthill will struggle as much as people think. I’m only basing that on their leavers list, which didn’t have many key players on it (e.g. Josh Barton). They haven’t announced much (they never do), but I’m assuming those players not announced as leaving are retained. Plus they’ll still have the Saracens link even if they have a cap on the number in a match day squad. I think they’ll have enough quality to avoid relegation.
Cambridge hard to predict as having an overhaul. I think they’ll do better than last season. However, I thought they’d recruited well last season and was surprised how poor they were. Pirates I think will struggle to challenge top 4 but should have enough to make the playoffs. The only team that might challenge them is Hartpury. Again, Hartpury don’t announce anything so hard to know what their team will look like. A couple of their better players have been announced as signing elsewhere so they may struggle to replicate last season. Bedford were pretty fortunate with injuries last year and were able able to be much more consistent with selection than previous seasons. We’ve made some decent signings but also lost some decent players. For me, the back row is not as strong as last season. I’m not sure if we have any signings still to announce but I still think we need depth at tighthead, 7 and centre. If we can get a few additional players in and stay relatively injury free then we can challenge the top 3. If we lose a couple of key players with injuries etc. I think we’ll have to be content with fighting for 4th with Coventry.
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Rothman2
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Rotherham Joined: 20 Jan 2010 Location: Location Status: Online Points: 12590 |
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Posted: 1 hour 7 minutes ago at 14:52 |
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Does anyone know if the play off between Championship second bottom and National 1 runners up is over 2 legs or 1?
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Kimbo
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Joined: 31 May 2007 Location: 'incleh Status: Offline Points: 6711 |
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Posted: 46 minutes ago at 15:13 |
One leg (probably at the Champ ground, I would imagine, but not certain).
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Kimbo
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Joined: 31 May 2007 Location: 'incleh Status: Offline Points: 6711 |
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Posted: 40 minutes ago at 15:19 |
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I assume you'll be aware of this too:
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Our Club |
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CAM1923 wrote: