County Championship News from the North
May
BILL Beaumont Cup holders Lancashire may be in the driving seat as the only unbeaten team in North Division One of the competition going into the final qualifying match, but coach Mark Nelson is taking nothing for granted as he prepares for a Roses match decider at Huddersfield RFC on Saturday (May 22, 3pm).
While the form bet is on a repeat of last season's Lancashire v Gloucestershire final, the balance of power in the top two divisions is such that a number of permutations are still open, with all eight clubs either hoping for a Twickenham outing or looking over their shoulders at relegation.
A place in the showpiece is still available to the North's top three if results are favourable and relegation still a threat for the bottom three if they do not get it right in the final game.
Which is why Nelson is so circumspect about the Roses game.
"I expect Yorkshire to be much stronger on Saturday at Huddersfield," he says: "There's no way we'll be taking anything for granted. We've always known this was likely to be like a semi-final and it will be a very difficult match. I'm sure we'll need to raise the bar again and up the level of our performance.
"Yorkshire will come at use like dervishes and we need to keep our nerve because we're the ones under pressure with Twickenham beckoning."
Key to success for the Red Rose men will be whether they can achieve the forward supremacy that has carried them through two very testing games against Cheshire and Northumberland and whether, when the pressure moments present themselves at Huddersfield, their more seasoned players can step up to the plate and deliver what is needed.
Incentive will not be a problem for either Yorkshire or Cheshire, who both have the twin motivations of either winning the group or slipping out of it. While the Cheshire team will have half an eye on events across the Pennines, they cannot allow their focus to be diverted when Northumberland arrive at Chester RFC.
The men from the North East are without a win and favourites for the drop, but so tight has been the competition in all the Northern Division games that they are clearly capable of holding onto their top-tier status - a position Cheshire are especially keen to cling to having won promotion last season.
Victory over Yorkshire is always a feather in the Cheshire cap and having taken Lancashie to the wire the previous week, they are a side on the upgrade.
"We played really well and deserved the win," says joint Team Manager Dave Partington, who is becoming a convert to the new rolling substitution system: "I'm getting there. Lancashire used it very well against us and last weekend we got the measure of it. The trick is for players to realise that when they've been brought off, it's not the signal to put the metaphorical fag in the mouth and relax. They are still very much part of the game and when you get it right, it can have a big impact."
Selection again offer an interesting challenge for Cheshire with players from Macclesfield, on Twickenham duty last weekend, now back in contention. Striking the right balance and being fair to the players who have served them so well so far will not be an easy decision
In Division Two, Durham will simply be hoping for an 80-minute performance when they take on Eastern Counties at Sudbury RFC. With their hosts having crashed 87-10 against North Midlands at Stourbridge last weekend, Durham will go into the game as favourites to collect their first win, but having had two performances reminiscent of the Jeckyll & Hyde Show, consistency will surely be the biggest ambition.
In the County Championship Shield semi-finals, Cumbria travel to Leicestershire looking for revenge for a defeat in the Midlands last season that will earn them a trip to Twickenham, the icing on the cake for the Presidency of John Owen, a stalwart of Cumbrian rugby.
"You wouldn't have guessed we'd be in this position at half-time last weekend at Mansfield," said Team Manager Mark Richardson: "There was only one team in it in the first half and it wasn't us. I was kicking everything in front of me at half-time.
"When Notts, Lincs & Derby scored soon after the break to lead 27-17, I thought that was it, but then we started to win some ball and put it together. We won the second-half 46-7 and finished with 10 tries and a 63-27 win.
"Now we're on a revenge mission against Leicestershire. They beat us last season, but we didn't play very well. With a Twickenham outing as the prize, we need to do better."
One disappointment for the Cumbria camp is the fact that their outstanding No 8, Mike Rayne, is unavailable, but on the credit side, backs Martin Armstrong and Gavin Cartmel are back in the frame after injury.
Bill Beaumont Cup
May 8: North Division One - Northumberland 26 Yorkshire 31 (at Tynedale RFC), Lancashire 37 Cheshire 27 (at Fylde RFC). South Division One - Cornwall 17 Devon 31 (at Cambourne RFC), Gloucestershire 26 Hertfordshire 3 (at Lydney RFC). North Division Two - Warwickshire 24 Eastern Counties 8 (at Coventry RFC), North Midlands 26 Durham 25 (at Stourbridge). South Division Two - Middlesex 18 Somerset 35 (at Staines RFC), Hampshire 15 Kent 55 (at Havant RFC).
May 15: North Division One - Northumberland 22 Lancashire 35 (at Percy Park RFC, Cheshire 18 Yorkshire 13 (at Macclesfield RFC). South Division One - Devon 9 Gloucestershire 23 (at Plymouth Albion RFC), Hertfordshire 30 Cornwall 32 (at Hertford RFC). North Division Two - North Midlands 87 Eastern Counties 10 (at Stourbridge RFC), Durham 27 Warwickshire 29 (at Gateshead RFC). South Division Two - Somerset 14 Kent 43 (Taunton RFC), Middlesex 36 Hampshire 34 (at Staines RFC).
May 22: North Division One - Cheshire v Northumberland (at Chester RFC, 3pm), Yorkshire v Lancashire (at Huddersfield RFC, 3pm). South Division One - Hertfordshire v Devon (at Old Albanians, 3pm), Cornwall v Gloucestershire (at Redruth RFC, 3pm). North Division Two - Eastern Counties v Durham (at Sudbury RFC, 3pm), Warwickshire v North Midlands (at Rugby Lions RFC, 3pm). South Division Two - Hampshire v Somerset (at Basingstoke RFC, 3pm), Kent v Middlesex (at Folkestone RFC, 3pm).
May 29: Division Two Plate final - Winners of South Division Two v Winners of North Division Two.
May 30: Cup final: Winners of North Division One v Winners of South Division One at Twickenham
County Championship Shield
May 1: Pool 1 - East Midlands 15 Oxfordshire 54, Leicestershire 43 Essex 19; Pool 2 - Staffordshire 20 Notts, Lincs & Derby 28; Pool 3 - Dorset & Wilts 31 Buckinghamshire 6, Berkshire 28 Sussex 20.
May 8: Pool 1 - Leicestershire 33 Oxfordshire 12 at Market Harborough RFC, Essex 32 East Midlands 24 (at Barking RFC).Pool 2 - Cumbria 42 Staffordshire 10 (at Penrith RFC).
Pool 3 - Dorset & Wilts 48 Berkshire 10 (at Swanage & Wareham RFC), Buckinghamshire 24 Sussex 22 (at Aylesbury RFC).
May 15: Pool 1 - East Midlands 13 Leicestershire 44 (at Peterborough RFC), Oxfordshire 34 Essex 27 (at Chinnor RFC). Pool 2 - Notts, Lincs & Derby 27 Cumbria 63 (at Mansfield RFC). Pool 3 - Sussex 13 Dorset & Wilts 42 (at Lewes RFC), Buckinghamshire 24 Berkshire 27 (at Marlow RFC).
May 22: Shield Semi-finals - Dorset & Wiltshire v Oxfordshire, Leicestershire v Cumbria.
May 30: Shield Final at Twickenham
