Brian Dick: Presents beneath the rugby Christmas tree
Dec 18 2008 By Brian Dick, Rugby Correspondent
well placed for a return to the First Division but, with the goalposts moved mid-season and just one team to go up now, Bees are seven points behind Redruth.
Their main problem is that they under-perform massively whenever their head coach goes off with the England Sevens squad. Crucial defeats against Sedgley, Bedford at home, Launceston and Coventry were fateful last term.
Although they managed to beat Waterloo without Earnshaw this season, they were upset at home in their last league match against Tynedale when he was in South Africa. How he must wish he could be in two places at once.
Phil Maynard (Coventry): A win over Moseley – I think Maynard would be happy to wait 24 hours for his present if it brought sweet redemption over his deadly rivals in next week’s Boxing Day clash.
It would be wrong to read too much into the fact that Maynard has worked for Worcester, Stourbridge, Birmingham & Solihull and now Coventry, in short all of Moseley’s closest rivals, but it is safe to say their relationship is not too far from that enjoyed by fire and water. With that in mind. therefore, Maynard must have been not a little piqued to watch his side rolled over 34-12 in the third game of the season. It was just the second time he had lost to the Men in Red and Black and to do so in such a pitiful manner would have prickled.
But what would have irked even more was the Maynard-baiting enjoyed by so many of Moseley’s supporters and officials. Nothing sinister. you understand; just enough to make a point. How he would love to provide the most eloquent of ripostes next Friday.
Neil Mitchell (Stourbridge): A Doctor Who Tardis – How the Stour director of rugby must wish he could turn the clock back to a happier time. But to when would he go? Cinderford away in early-November? Cambridge away on the first day of the season? Probably not.
Given Mitchell’s fears that his team could get dragged into a relegation fight because of the aforementioned league restructuring - there could be four clubs for the drop now, instead of the customary three, let’s take him back to February when Sam Robinson and Mark Eastwood collided with each other and were both carried off.
Neither has played since and, crucially, Stour were forced to fulfil their promotion showdown at Manchester in March with a makeshift midfield. That midfield didn’t function, they lost and didn’t go up. One can only wonder whether Robinson and Eastwood’s presence might have changed the future.
Stour would probably still be at the wrong end of a league table, but at least it’d be National One.
Read More>
> Brian Dick's blog and the ongoing debate about Shane Williams
> Martin Warrillow's blog and the good old days of players getting caked in mud
