De Cothi ready for Loughborough to build on victory

Loughborough Student’s victory over Wharfedale at home may not have been the stand out result in National One this weekend, but for George De Cothi the win was more like picking up 10 points rather than just the usual five.

And the scrum-half believes that he and the rest of the players can start to push on and move away from the relegation zone after this victory.

Students won 30-8 on the weekend with De Cothi scoring the opening try which was followed up in the second half with scores from Rotimi Segun, Andrew Boyce and a double from Paolo Odogwu.

The result for Wharfedale leaves them 14^th while Loughborough moved off the foot of the table with the win.

They now lie 11^th having picked up just three wins this season, but De Cothi says there is no reason why they can’t build some confidence and kick on after this result.

“I think getting the five points on Saturday was a massive result,” said De Cothi. It is always important to win against teams which are close to you in the table. They almost turn into 10 point games.

“It was also nice that the win took us off bottom of the table. Nobody likes being bottom of the table no matter what stage of the season. Hopefully we can start to build some momentum from this result and performance.”

The club have be close on a number of occasions  to picking up more than just the three victories this campaign having ran Ampthill and District close a couple of weeks ago and that performance was the perfect example to show what Loughborough are capable – though De Cothi says his side must be more consistent.

He added: “Although some of the results haven’t gone our way, I have been pretty pleased with some of the performances we have put in this season.

“There are a lot of games where we could have come away with more points if it hadn't been for a small period of the game where we lost concentration. I feel like if we put together a full 80 minutes of the rugby we know we can produce results and will continue to improve and this was partly shown by Saturday’s result.”

De Cothi will be hoping to be off the treatment table this season after being out for nine months with an ACL injury and with him touching down on the weekend; he is looking forward to building on that performance for the rest of the campaign.

He said: “I was pretty pleased with my performance on Saturday. I had spoken to the coaches beforehand on a few key areas to perform well in this game and I feel like I met these goals.

“Having been out injured for so long, it is just really nice to be back playing regular rugby every week. I feel like I'm getting more consistent performances which I'm happy with and hopefully can take these into the reminder of the season.”

Elsewhere in National One, once again it was all change at the top as Hartpury College are the new league leaders after Esher were defeated by Rosslyn Park.

The top six are now just separated by just six points while the gap at the bottom of the table is just four points. The league continues to be tight and tense so expect that to be the trend throughout this season as sides’ battle it out for that one promotion spot while others fight for their survival.

Here is a review of the rest of the action from Round 10 in National One:

Hartpury College 37-10 Ampthill and District

Hartpury College are back on top of National One after a superb first-half performance against Ampthill. Winger Jonas Mikalcius ran in a hat-trick and was backed up by scores from Gareth Thompson and Benjamin Vellacott to give them a resounding 32-3 half time lead.

Ampthill were improved after the break, but could only manage a try from Maxwell Wilkins as Hartpury showed just why they have the best defensive record in the league.

Richmond 23-20 Blackheath

Richmond showed why they should be considered as serious promotion candidates as they edged out an in-form Blackheath side whose eight game unbeaten run came to an end.

Two Jack Allcock tries and a score from Chris Davies set up a platform for Richmond to go on and secure victory as they carried in a 17-10 lead at the break.

Robert Kirby got the only points in the second half for the hosts as Blackheath fought back to secure a losing bonus point, but will know that they are still just four points behind Hartpury despite this loss.

Esher 17-20 Rosslyn Park

This game highlights just how close the top six really are. Esher went into the weekend as league leaders and are now down to 3^rd after this defeat to Rosslyn Park who are now just a point behind Esher.

Park fly-half Thomas Whiteley landed 10 points throughout the afternoon and a Penalty Try and a score from Michael MacFarlane gave them a 5-20 half-time lead.

Tries from Neil Sweeney and Calum Waters was as good as it got for Esher who are now three points off the leaders Hartpury.

Hull Ionains 32-5 Henley Hawks

Outside of the top six and looking at the battle above them are Hull Ionians who are now six points behind the front runners after a bonus point win over Henley Hawks.

First half tries from Alexander Crockett, Samuel Wilson and William Foden gave the I’s a 20-5 advantage at the break before they wrapped up the bonus with further tries from Foden and Benjamin Winterburn.

The defeat for Henley moves them down to 13^th in the table and with just two points separating them and the bottom three, the Hawks will be looking to turn their fortunes around as soon as possible.

Plymouth Albion 15-25 Darlington Mowden Park

After a good run of recent results for Plymouth Albion, they were stunned by the visit of Darlington Mowden Park who performed brilliantly to seal a much needed win.

A tight first half saw DMP lead 7-8 at the interval, but a Penalty Try, a score by Ignas Darkintis and a penalty from Gary Law secured the victory in the second half for the side from the north-east.

Coventry 38-0 Blaydon

Another side from the north-east are Blaydon who had a completely contrasting afternoon to Darlington Mowden Park as they were thumped away at Coventry who put their bad run of form behind them on Saturday.

Matt Jones nailed three penalties in the first-half before the hosts ran in four second half tries to secure maximum points at the Butts Park Arena.

Wayne Evans, Gaston Mieres Valent, Dominic Lespierre and Devlin Hope all crossed to see Coventry home and send Blaydon back to the foot of National One.

Fylde 45-7 Cinderford

After victory last week for Cinderford, they were brought back down to earth with a thud as Fylde ran in seven tries at Woodlands.

Fylde raced into a 14-0 lead thanks to a Penalty Try and a score from David Fairbrother and five touchdowns came in the second-half as the away side were blown away.

Scott Rawlings, Warren Spragg, Chris Briers, Jordan Dorrington and Joseph Robinson all added to the scoreline as they cruised to their fourth win of the season.