National 2 South Review-Preview - Round 12 & 13

Henley Hawks are really starting to run away with this division having maintained their 100 per cent record last weekend with a win over Redruth. They do seem unstoppable at the minute and it is mostly certainly theirs to lose.

The Hawks made it 12 wins from 12 last Saturday as they beat Redruth 17-3 at Dry Leas. The visitors put on a strong defensive performance and restricted the table toppers to just two tries despite having three players sin-binned throughout the match and conceding 15 penalties. The league leaders travel to 15th placed Shelford this weekend as they look to make it 13 wins in a row.

As for Redruth, they take on the Hawks’ nearest rivals Dorking on Saturday. The Reds have won three of their last ten matches, but have only lost once at home this season.

Keeping with Dorking they narrowly beat fifth placed Bishop’s Stortford 23-22 on Saturday with the hosts scoring one less try than Stortford. The visitors were brilliant by all accounts in this one and came away with two satisfying bonus points, but did drop out of the top four with this defeat.

This weekend Dorking go to Redruth in search of their twelfth straight victory and will want to maintain their 100 per cent away record this season. In terms of Bishop’s Stortford they welcome Chinnor to Silver Lays as they look to go back into the top four immediately. They have lost their last two, but Stortford did win 43-12 on the penultimate weekend of last season against Chinnor.

Third placed Taunton were beaten by Chinnor on Saturday 30-26 when it looked like the home side were on the verge of defeat. But, Ryan Long’s mazy run sealed Chinnor’s seventh win of the season and their second in a row against Taunton. Taunton have now lost their last three matches and now only four points clear of fifth position in the table. This Saturday they host Lydney who have lost all five of their away games so far this season.

Worthing Raiders kept up their good recent run of results as an excellent first half display was enough for them to see off the in-form Cambridge 14-28. This ended Cambridge’s three game winning streak and they knew with a win they could’ve gone ahead of the Raiders in the table. It didn’t click for the hosts on Saturday who were left frustrated at their own performance at full-time.

Coach’s View

Cambridge Director of Rugby, Rowland Winter said after the game: "Our game management was poor today, we just didn’t play our own rugby, the way we know we can.

"We can’t give away leads like that through mistakes of our own. We can’t concede twenty-plus points and expect to win a game; it’s just not going to happen"

Worthing will be looking to make it four wins from their last five matches on Saturday as they are at home to bottom side Dings Crusaders who are yet to win on the road all season. As for Cambridge, they will want to bounce back from this defeat as they face Clifton away from home who are level on points with Cambridge, but do have that game in hand against Lydney.

Clifton also suffered a defeat this weekend as they were beaten by the Cornish All Blacks 23-16 on Saturday.

This ended a run of one win in seven matches for the All Blacks. Clifton have now only won once in their last five matches and have slowly slipped into the bottom half of the table and seem to be in need of a win. The Cornish All Blacks travel to seventh placed Old Elthamians this Saturday looking for their fourth win of the season.

The Old Elthamians have also only won once in their last five games and were beaten by Southend Saxons 29-26 who secured their fifth win of the season and ended a two game winless run. This was the first time the teams have met and it proved to be a thriller at Warners Park. Old E’s couldn’t believe their luck as they managed to come away with two bonus points after a good end to the game. Southend are now just four points outside the top half of the table and travel to 14th placed Canterbury this Saturday.

Canterbury fell to their third defeat in four games last weekend as they were beaten 24-11 by 13th placed Lydney. This continued Canterbury’s woes on the road as they are still yet to win this season and Lydney managed to claim their first win over Canterbury in two matches. Lydney’s home form may well be enough to keep them away from the regelation zone and this was an important win for them.

Canterbury host Southend on Saturday and they did beat them in their last meeting 27-21. As for Lydney, they are away to Taunton where the last six matches between the teams as seen both win three matches apiece.

Finally, the Dings Crusaders claimed just their second win of the season as they comfortably beat Shelford 43-20. This was the home sides first win against Shelford in two matches and now reduces the gap to three points between the teams. Shelford, who have been hit by injury, have won just once in their last seven matches and they host league leaders Henley Hawks this weekend for the first time in two seasons with the Hawks winning both encounters that year. As for the Crusaders, they are away to Worthing where they lost this corresponding fixture 29-25 in October 2012.