Team

Round 11 of the RFU Championship has the Knights travel to Esher. This is the last game of the first half of Stage 1 of the Championship.

After 3 fantastic winning bonus point results, the Knights are 5th in the Championship table. Esher were soundly beaten by a 6–try loss, 54 points – 6 by the Cornish Pirates (now 3rd) to place them in 8th position and in the relegation zone. They’ll want to improve their performance significantly and overtake Plymouth Albion, who are only 1 point above them in 7th.

Esher’s Sam Stitcher (flanker) scored against Rotherham Titans on 23rd October and in the game before that, the draw against Plymouth, ex-Wasps centre, Sebastian Jewell touched down for Esher. A flanker and a centre have scored Esher’s last 2 tries; these positions are mentioned as key try-scoring positions for Esher. The Knights have experienced the strength of the Titans pack, yet an Esher flanker scored against the Titans.

Ex-London Welsh full back, Sam Ulph is Esher’s top points scorer. Another full back, ex-Titan Michael Whitehead is only 6 points behind Ulph, so Esher aren’t limited to 1 kicker.

Esher have scored twice as many tries in the second half compared to the first half, with the majority being in the third 20 minutes of the game, so the Knights can expect a strong start after the half-time break. Between them Esher‘s centres and the front row have scored half of the London clubs tries. This indicates breaching the defence to score a try from scrums/rucks/mauls and the centres exploiting gaps in the opposition defence.

Esher have a much stronger defence at home. They’ve conceded less than a third of their tries in Esher. Of their leaked tries, they have been scored fairly evenly throughout the game and nearly a third have been scored by wingers. This suggests the creation of overlaps, perhaps by the Esher defence not getting into position quickly enough. Surely quick hands, passing the ball can’t be a strength of every team that have played Esher.

The second row has scored significantly more tries against Esher than any other team in the Championship (double the second highest). The back row has scored as many but this is less significant compared to other teams. Second and back row scoring advocates that tries will be scored from line outs close to the try line, with the catcher diving over and flankers/No. 8’s peeling off scrums/rucks/mauls to score a try.

Sunday's game at Esher (moved from Saturday to avoid clashing with England v New Zealand just up the road) will be the Knight's last in the first half of the regular Championship season.  The Knights will be looking to the likes of former Esher player Dougie Flockhart to get them into a winning mood against his old team-mates.  Esher are a very traditional club running any number of teams on a normal Saturday as well as the full gambit of junior/mini rugby sides on a Sunday.  Their most famous current luminary is John Inverdale, of BBC TV fame, who is their Chairman of Rugby.

3 teams are on equal points in second, third and fourth spots in the Championship and all are 8 points above the Knights.
Sixth-placed Nottingham are only 2 points below fifth-placed Knights and Rotherham Titans are 5 points below.
Nottingham (6th) host the Cornish Pirates (3rd) also on Sunday
Eleventh-placed team, Moseley travel to South Yorkshire to play Rotherham Titans (7th) on Saturday.

Bob and Chris Briggs are hoping to run a supporter's coach to the match provided their is enough interest.  Please put your name on the list in the clubhouse if you intend going or alternatively please ring them on 01302 536561 or 07870585045