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Saturday is coming!!

Saturday is coming!!

Nick Doyle23 Apr 2015 - 08:10
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Otley XV entertain Birmingham & Solihull in the last N2N game of the season.

This Saturday sees the 25th encounter between the two sides in league competitions, with Otley leading the series 13-11. Two seasons Otley did the double over the Bees last season, eventually running out comfortable winners 51-15 at Cross Green and securing a gritty hard fought win at Portway 29-24. However, last season Bees did the double over Otley. In the opening game of the 2014-15 season, it took a penalty in the final minute by Stephen Depledge to secure a 25-23 away win.

It is fair to say that for our old rivals things have not gone as expected for Birmingham & Solihull, having finished sixth last season they were looking to go one better that this season. In last week’s game against fellow relegation contenders Hull, Bees conceded an eight-point lead against Hull in the final eight minutes to crash to another agonising defeat. The latest loss means that Birmingham & Solihull, barring a minor miracle in the last round of the games next Saturday, will be relegated from English rugby’s fourth tier on Saturday.

For our part, recent results have also not gone our way and we should be looking to continue with the form that we should against Sedgley Park in the final quarter when a 20 point deficit was very nearly turned over. We will need to play like that for the whole 80 if we are going to get seventh place in the league, and even then we are relying on Sedgley convincingly beating Broadstreet. The last thing we want to do, with due respect to the implications for Bees, is go out with a whimper on the final game of the season.

First XV team:
George Burkinshaw, Ben Steele, Mark Chivers, Jonathan Stannard, Stuart Gregg, Stephen Costello, Jack Scott Paul, Freddie Watson, Stephen Depledge, James White, Harry Hudson, Mike Coady, Jack Mackie, Alex Beaumont and Kristian Sharples
Subs:
Jason Moss, Will Rigg, Chris Gemmell and Arnie Ellison

Go Otley!!

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