Gael Force Ready For The Cup

Gael Force completed their preparations for the British & Irish Cup competition with a narrow 20-19 victory over a Doncaster Knights `A` side at Castle Park last night.

The Scottish representative side will be the first opponents of the Cornish Pirates in the new competition when they visit Camborne on November 22 nd.

The Knights took an early 14-0 lead following a penalty try and a score from prop Lewis Thiede. Both were converted.

But the Scots fought back with a try from Glasgow wing Chris Kinloch. Edinburgh’s Ryan Grant added a second right on half-time converted by David Blair.

The Knights increased their two point advantage to seven with Chris Plainchant’s 58 th minute try before Gael Force full-back Jim Thompson slotted a penalty. The match was settled in favour of the visitors a minute from time when wing Dougie Fife raced home for the final score of the night.

Gael Force head coach, Stephen Gemmell, told the Scotsman:

"We showed great character tonight. We took a while to get up to the pace of the game and struggled a bit with the physicality of their set-piece which meant we were often playing off scraps, but when given the opportunity we created try-scoring chances with ball in hand

"We showed tonight that when we play our game we can be dangerous. We were behind for the whole match but we dug deep which shows we're now building a strong team ahead of the competition."

Full story.. www.scotsman.com

Knights team.. www.drfc.co.uk

Baxter pleased with Bedford win

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has spoken of how his team prepared for Saturday’s vital win at Bedford Blues by treating the match as if it was an end of season play-off.

He told the Express & Echo,

“We wanted it to be a pressure game for us so that we got used to playing in difficult environments and in difficult situations because that's what's going to happen at the end of the season.

"We've come through a real battle — and it was a tough old battle out there. It wasn't a perfect game of rugby by any means, both sides made mistakes, but that will happen in a big pressure game at the end of the season.

"There were times when Bedford had some real momentum, there were times we held on, times we turned them back and times when we had the upper hand, which was for most of the first half.”

Full story.. www.thisisexeter.co.uk/rugby

Delaney Warns His Squad

Nottingham director of rugby Glenn Delaney has told his injury ravaged squad to improve ahead of Saturday`s key calsh with Exeter Chiefs at Welford Road.

Delaney`s side crashed to a shock 31-25 defeat at Brickfields on Saturday and he knows that the Chiefs who are unbeaten in nine games so far will be far less forgiving.

He told the Evening Post,

"We've got to rise above last Saturday and put our stamp on games. We need a bit more composure and a bit more maturity.

"We have a tough one against Exeter this Saturday and if the guys play like that then they won't be good enough again this weekend. We will have to work pretty hard in training this week to make sure we can improve going into this game."

Full story.. www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/rugby

The match has been switched to the home of Leicester Tigers with a 4.15pm kick-off as Meadow Lasne is unavailable due to an FA Cup tie involving Notts County.