Just clinging on, thanks to bonus points that we missed last season. That said, IIRC we were in a flattering position in Dec last year and then the wheels fell off. Fewer injuries and international callups this year may have given Gustard the edge, but a couple of losses and we are back in the sticky stuff.
Big difference between last season and this is the competitive nature of the league. It appears that anyone from 4th down can beat anyone else in that group. It is going to be one of the closest relegation battles ever.
Every point counts..... and that includes stopping others picking try bonuses and LBPs.
It’s going to be squeaky bums all over.....
Just clinging on, thanks to bonus points that we missed last season. That said, IIRC we were in a flattering position in Dec last year and then the wheels fell off. Fewer injuries and international callups this year may have given Gustard the edge, but a couple of losses and we are back in the rubbish.
... and a couple of wins and we are well in the mix.
Yes, the bonus points have really helped and have meant that we are top of the third tier. (1: Ex and Sarries; 2: Wasps and Glaws; 3: The rest of us).
It goes without saying that 'the next three games are huge' - they always are! However, anything from Friday will be great. Leicester are no mugs but vulnerable. Then Wasps in a showpiece match for Big Game 11. What do we think, 10 points from those 3? Maybe.
I am always optimisting and think that we can compete. The squad is good and, I believe is going in the right direction. If we are in with a shout of the top 6 come April, we have got to be happy with that. Given that we were widely tipped to be "in trouble"!
Leicester were (thankfully for us) done over by Dickson today. Sarries should have had a man off and given away a penalty try earlier for deliberate knock on. They were about as cynical a side as i’ve seen. So i don’t think Tigers are vulnerable at home, and our away form (Glos apart) is awful.
10 points from the next 3 will be excellent. In reality I think we'll be lucky to get 4 or 5.
Yep great to be 5th but let’s be honest if we get anything Friday night against Exeter it will be good maybe LBP if lucky
Tiggers away, going to be tough maybe a LBP based on our away form
Pest for big game who knows, the players might be up for it, but you can bet Wasps will be as well.
And not forgetting we have to try and get challenge cup back on track
Last season fell apart after December, just hope it’s not a repeat, can genuinely see improvements and hoping we can get some results
Here’s hoping
How are we fifth?
Bonus points.
That's it. We got 8 last year across the whole season, we've got 7 already this year.
If like last year we'd had none, we'd be one point off Newcastle at the bottom with a tough run of games to come.
We may still be losing games but at least we're making teams work hard for the win.
The difference is that for away games, we are fighting much harder:
last year: Wor v Har = 31 point loss; this year = 7 point loss
Last year: Nor v Har = 8 point loss; this year = 7 point loss (we had the chance of this being only a 4 point loss as we had a kickable penalty on full time, but the team tried (quite rightly imo) to go for a try/conversion to get a draw)
This seems to be down to defence. Last season, almost every team scored at least 4 tries against us. The only way to win games using this tactic is to score 5 or more tries in every game. Besides being difficult, it also means that losing bonus points are more unlikely than you will get in a low scoring game.
e.g. if you lost 14/7. although you have only scored 50% of the score as the opposition has scored, you will get a bonus point.
if you lost 30/15, you still scored 50% of the score of the opposition, but there is no LBP. Add to this that the team scoring 30 may have scored a TBP and your position in the table suffers.
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