Coventry 25 Moseley 28

Friday evening`s match at the Butts Park Arena ended in angry scenes on and off the pitch as Coventry conceded a penalty try deep into stoppage time to lose their fourth successive game.

Leading 25-21 with over a minute of stoppage time played Coventry scrum-half Greg Goodfellow booted the ball into touch believing that the game was over. However Referee Luke Pearce allowed the contest to continue for another seven minutes at which point Coventry`s front row collapsed a scrum 5 metres from their own line.

Mr Pearce had no hesitation in awarding a third penalty try on the night against the home side and as Rob Thirlby converted to cap Moseley`s dramatic comeback tempers flared.

Coventry boss Phil Maynard said of the Referee afterwards,

“Who appointed him and what experience has he got reffing at this level?”

“The issue we have here is this young ref and the RFU saying these games are not as important as they used to be. Tell that to 3,000 paying customers.

If the young gentleman who refereed had been in our changing room before the match. he would have heard Tony Gulliver and Dave Addleton talking about how far this fixture goes back and what it means to the city and people of Coventry.”

Full story.. www.birminghampost.net

Match report.. www.birminghammail.net

Bees 0 Titans 29

The Bees capitulated on the field against an uninspiring Titans side in a manner which suggests that the death knell has already sounded for the Birmingham club.

With several unpaid players having left the club ahead of the match player-coach Russell Earnshaw was forced to field a largely unfamiliar side and they gave the Titans a game, trailing only 10-0 until the final quarter.

The Yorkshiremen then added three tries including two in the final minute to return to Clifton Lane with maximum points.

Brian Dick commented in the Birmingham Post, “ For 80-plus minutes, it was like watching a cat play with a dead mouse. The torturer had mere passing interest in its inanimate prey and virtually no knowledge of how to dissect it.

I have seen Rotherham twice this season. They have won here and lost at Coventry and if a conclusion can be drawn from either game, it is that the Titans are slightly less than nothing special.”

Full story.. www.birminghampost.net

The Sheffield Star reports that the Titans are now locked in a dispute with Nottingham over the date and time of their next match.

The fixture had been scheduled for Sunday October 11th at Meadow Lane but Nottingham`s landlords, Notts County FC, have switched their home game to that date due to TV scheduling commitments.

With permission denied to play the Titans on Saturday Nottingham had re-scheduled the match to this Friday (9th) with an evening kick-off. The Titans management have rejected this proposal.

Full story.. www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

Doncaster Knights 7 Nottingham 23

The Knights remain firmly in the basement of the Championship after their fifth straight defeat and third reverse at home.

Matters were compounded for the Yorkshire side as both flanker Adam Kettle and wing Chris Briers were red carded late in the game. Kettle received his marching orders for fighting whilst Briers` dismissal was due to a second yellow card.

In difficult conditions Nottingham held a fragile 6-0 lead until just before the hour mark when scrum-half Tim Usasz scored their first try of the afternoon. Two further tries from Ben Johnston and Luke Sheriff then followed in the next ten minutes as the visitors built an unassailable 23-point advantage.

Knights scrum-half Chris Hallam scored a late consolation try for the home side converted by Warnock.

Full report.. www.thestar.co.uk

Nottingham website viewpoint.. www.nottinghamrugby.co.uk

The Knights were forced to register former Cornish Pirates coach and now Number 2 at Castle Park Brett Davey as their injury crisis worsened ahead of the game.

Another former Pirate Nicky Griffiths has been ruled out for six months with a shoulder injury but Head Coach Lyn Howells is refusing to be downbeat. Instead he is targeting their next match at home to Coventry as a chance to reverse their fortunes.

Howells told The Star,

“We could do with an easier side just to get the roll going again. We need a result and Coventry, who we play host to on Saturday, are one of the sides that we have an opportunity to beat.”

He continued,

"We are finding that when you aren't playing well that the decisions often go against you as well. We played the whole of the second half with 14 men after having had back-rower Adam Kettle sent off and we must have played 30 minutes of the game with only 13 men due to other players being sin-binned.

"We also had winger Chris Briers sent off late on, which was a disgusting decision and I will be appealing against it."

Full story.. www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

Plymouth Albion 16 Cornish Pirates 8

The match report for this game can be found here….

Albion’s chairman of rugby Graham Dawe was gracious in victory to the defeated Pirates. He told The Herald, “ The boys worked their socks off and our defence held out against a good Pirates attack.”

"We had a lot of trust in our defence because there were a lot of one-on-ones. And although Rhodri McAtee scored a cracking try, which put the game in the balance for a bit, the missed conversion was important for us and meant they missed out on a bonus point.”

"We managed to play a relatively decent first half and although we missed a few opportunities to expose them, full credit to Pirates because they made a real game of it and they did challenge our defence. They were perhaps unlucky not to go away with something."

Full story.. www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Prop Danny Porte, who scored Albion`s first try on Saturday, has urged his team mates to make Brickfields a fortress for the rest of the season.

He said, "The fans have been great, they get behind you, and I know from previous experience that coming to Plymouth is always hard. We want people to start fearing coming down here.”

"We want teams to say 'we know what we are going to get when we go to Plymouth, it is going to be a hard game, they are going to maul and they are going to drive it' and we should never disappoint anyone with that."

Full story.. www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/albion

Bristol 26 Exeter Chiefs 35

Bristol`s 100% record in the Championship was demolished in style at the Memorial Stadium by Exeter Chiefs.

Thirteen points from Gareth Steenson and tries from Matt Cornwell and Richie Baxter gave the Chiefs a hefty 23-6 advantage at half-time before the home side rallied. Tries from Junior Fatialofa and Dan Norton were key to a fight-back which pegged the scores at 23-all.

But the Chiefs kicked on again retaking the lead almost immediately with a third try this time from Dollman.

Adrian Jarvis reduced the arrears to just two points with a penalty before a late fourth try for the visitors from Alcott sealed a memorable win for the Devon side.

Match report.. www.thisisbristol.co.uk/bristolrugby

Bristol head coach Paul Hull was concerned by the number of errors his side made and the poor way in which they both started and ended the match.

The home side shipped 13 points in the first 17 minutes and another 12 in the final 15 prompting Hull to say,

“The errors on our side cost us dearly, because they capitalised on those errors and scored at crucial times. It was character-building stuff at times and we'll learn from this.”

Full story.. ww.thisisbristol.co.uk/bristolrugby

Bristol fly-half Adrian Jarvis, who kicked 16 points in the match, said afterwards that the defeat was just a “blip”.

He continued, “We came out to play some rugby, but we're gutted that we fell away at the end – and we've got to find a way to control those momentum shifts in a game."

Full story.. www.thisisbristol.co.uk/bristolrugby

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter told the Western Morning News,

“We have come here and won today in a good, entertaining game of rugby. I'm massively pleased with our commitment and our character. We showed it last week [against Plymouth Albion] and we showed it again today.

I'm slightly disappointed that we went into containment mode at times, but if you let Bristol play, they are a team that can really hurt you and they showed that at times.”

He continued,

“I just hope we don't take our foot off the gas and turn up at training on Tuesday thinking we are world beaters because that is far from the case. What we have to do is have another big, tough performance against London Welsh and move on from there."

Full story.. www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

London Welsh 28 Bedford Blues 17

The Blues tasted defeat for the second match in a row prompting their director of rugby, Mike Rayer, to lament an error-strewn performance.

The Exiles led 17-7 at the interval having taken a 4 th minute lead through an Aled Thomas penalty. Two tries followed from Sampson and Claasens, both converted by Thomas, with Bedford’s Luke Fielden replying with a converted try after 22 minutes.

Myles Dorrian offered the Blues some hope with a penalty just after the restart but two further penalties from Thomas and a second try of the match from Claasens extended the Welsh lead to 28-10.

Fielden scored a second try for Bedford after 65 minutes converted by Dorrian but it proved too little too late.

Mike Rayer told Bedfordshire on Sunday,

“Our play was frantic and lacked cohesion but the bottom line is that we made too many errors. We either gifted them possession or passed it straight to them.

“We had large chunks of that game but we made the wrong calls in wrong places on the pitch. We’re not a young side, we have experience and now we have to sit down, watch the DVD and hold our hands up.”

Full story.. www.bedsonsunday.com