Weekend Ahead - My teams
Cambridge United
Cambridge United close their season this Saturday with a home game against Dagenham and Redbridge. This has been a season of re-building for them and I am very pleased that they can finish no worse than 12th position and will qualify to take part in the Football League trophy next year. They will look to continue their excellent home form and finish this season on a high by winning comfortably. If this is to happen that will be five wins in six games and will be the perfect platform for next season. The question now will be who will stay and who will go over the close season. There are still a lot of key players that are out of contract, who may even fancy a move North of the river should Histon make the play offs. I would hope that Rob Newman has done enough over this season to instil some team spirit and loyalty into the team to give him every chance of signing the players he needs for next season. Team news for tomorrow see’s us struggling with centre backs with Davies, Peters and Duncan all likely to be missing. Whoever he plays will need to ensure they play a solid game to ensure they are here next year and to give the team a good basis for securing a win.
Warrington Wolves
Warrington get an extended break as they do not play until Monday afternoon when they take on the Leeds Rhinos. This give an indication as to whether or not they can push on and challenge for a top four finish this season. They had a massive win over the Bradford Bulls last week so confidence will be very high. This will however be a tough match so they will need to forget about last week and concentrate on getting the basics right from the start. Last week they managed to hold Bradford to just four points and will need a defensive effort along the same lines as this one again. They are more than capable of creating chances for themselves, what they have to concentrate on is stopping Leeds doing the same. Leeds will want to win to keep the pressure on St. Helens at the top of the table, this could be to Warrington’s advantage if they can establish an early lead as they did against Bradford. If they can force Leeds onto the back foot they will have a good chance of winning.
New Zealand Warriors
The Warriors hauled themselves of the bottom of the table last week with a good win over their wooden spoon rivals the Rabittohs, and now they need to carry on the good work with a decent performance against the Bulldogs. The Warriors would be higher up the league if not for their four point deduction at the start of the season and there is a chance that they could win this game if they put up a decent performance. As always they will need to do the basics, make sure that they complete their sets of six and put pressure on the game line when the Bulldogs have the ball. The boys over at www.rleague.com are split 2-1 on a Warriors victory. If they can continue their win 2 lose 2 performance this year then its a win, to break the pattern would mean the Bulldogs score their fourth successive victory. I’ll be optimistic and say they can gain confidence from last week and squeeze out an unlikely victory.
Wellington Hurricanes.
It is an important week for the Hurricanes as they take on the Chiefs hoping to get over their hiccup last week to the Brumbies. It will be interesting to see what team turns out on Saturday morning as last week the backs did very little to support the forwards and were often caught static by the Brumbies defence. The one thing they will have to make sure is that they don’t concede an early try and this was their un-doing last week. David Holwell started the game but his distribution was slow and things only picked up when Gopperth came on. However his kicking two weeks ago can best be described as rubbish so there is a lot of work needed here. The Chiefs are not the team they were three years ago and cannot be taken lightly, the Hurricanes will need to produce an all round performance to make sure they don’t slip up. They have two tricky games left to end the season and a nice tidy five point victory here will help them cement their place in the top four, a loss would open up a whole can of worms. Lets keep the faith and hope the back spring to life and delight the Wellington crowd with an easy victory.
Northampton Saints.
It’s a crucial time for the Northampton Saints, as they look to secure a place in the Heineken Cup next year. They currently sit in 6th place which will do it for them. They take on Bristol knowing that a five point victory and a loss by Saracens will see this place guaranteed and them returning to top class European Rugby next year. The question will be can they beat Bristol with four trys. The answer most definitely has to be yes to this, why wouldn’t they. They have something to play for and Bristol don’t, the question really should be will Saracens lose? The Saints will know the answer to this as Saracen host the Tigers on Friday night, and it is about time their East Midland neighbours did them a favour. If they don’t there will be a lot of pressure to beat Sale the following weekend and they will be playing for the title, and will be going all out for a win. A strong performance this week will see them home and then they will just need to celebrate a return to the Heineken Cup in style at Sale.
Cambridge United close their season this Saturday with a home game against Dagenham and Redbridge. This has been a season of re-building for them and I am very pleased that they can finish no worse than 12th position and will qualify to take part in the Football League trophy next year. They will look to continue their excellent home form and finish this season on a high by winning comfortably. If this is to happen that will be five wins in six games and will be the perfect platform for next season. The question now will be who will stay and who will go over the close season. There are still a lot of key players that are out of contract, who may even fancy a move North of the river should Histon make the play offs. I would hope that Rob Newman has done enough over this season to instil some team spirit and loyalty into the team to give him every chance of signing the players he needs for next season. Team news for tomorrow see’s us struggling with centre backs with Davies, Peters and Duncan all likely to be missing. Whoever he plays will need to ensure they play a solid game to ensure they are here next year and to give the team a good basis for securing a win.
Warrington Wolves
Warrington get an extended break as they do not play until Monday afternoon when they take on the Leeds Rhinos. This give an indication as to whether or not they can push on and challenge for a top four finish this season. They had a massive win over the Bradford Bulls last week so confidence will be very high. This will however be a tough match so they will need to forget about last week and concentrate on getting the basics right from the start. Last week they managed to hold Bradford to just four points and will need a defensive effort along the same lines as this one again. They are more than capable of creating chances for themselves, what they have to concentrate on is stopping Leeds doing the same. Leeds will want to win to keep the pressure on St. Helens at the top of the table, this could be to Warrington’s advantage if they can establish an early lead as they did against Bradford. If they can force Leeds onto the back foot they will have a good chance of winning.
New Zealand Warriors
The Warriors hauled themselves of the bottom of the table last week with a good win over their wooden spoon rivals the Rabittohs, and now they need to carry on the good work with a decent performance against the Bulldogs. The Warriors would be higher up the league if not for their four point deduction at the start of the season and there is a chance that they could win this game if they put up a decent performance. As always they will need to do the basics, make sure that they complete their sets of six and put pressure on the game line when the Bulldogs have the ball. The boys over at www.rleague.com are split 2-1 on a Warriors victory. If they can continue their win 2 lose 2 performance this year then its a win, to break the pattern would mean the Bulldogs score their fourth successive victory. I’ll be optimistic and say they can gain confidence from last week and squeeze out an unlikely victory.
Wellington Hurricanes.
It is an important week for the Hurricanes as they take on the Chiefs hoping to get over their hiccup last week to the Brumbies. It will be interesting to see what team turns out on Saturday morning as last week the backs did very little to support the forwards and were often caught static by the Brumbies defence. The one thing they will have to make sure is that they don’t concede an early try and this was their un-doing last week. David Holwell started the game but his distribution was slow and things only picked up when Gopperth came on. However his kicking two weeks ago can best be described as rubbish so there is a lot of work needed here. The Chiefs are not the team they were three years ago and cannot be taken lightly, the Hurricanes will need to produce an all round performance to make sure they don’t slip up. They have two tricky games left to end the season and a nice tidy five point victory here will help them cement their place in the top four, a loss would open up a whole can of worms. Lets keep the faith and hope the back spring to life and delight the Wellington crowd with an easy victory.
Northampton Saints.
It’s a crucial time for the Northampton Saints, as they look to secure a place in the Heineken Cup next year. They currently sit in 6th place which will do it for them. They take on Bristol knowing that a five point victory and a loss by Saracens will see this place guaranteed and them returning to top class European Rugby next year. The question will be can they beat Bristol with four trys. The answer most definitely has to be yes to this, why wouldn’t they. They have something to play for and Bristol don’t, the question really should be will Saracens lose? The Saints will know the answer to this as Saracen host the Tigers on Friday night, and it is about time their East Midland neighbours did them a favour. If they don’t there will be a lot of pressure to beat Sale the following weekend and they will be playing for the title, and will be going all out for a win. A strong performance this week will see them home and then they will just need to celebrate a return to the Heineken Cup in style at Sale.
posted by Sports Potato at 6:26 PM
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