Rugby:Blooding youths comes to fore as league trapdoor disappears

Rugby:Blooding youths comes to fore as league trapdoor disappears

However, for next season they will have to find the money to pay for an extra four games because the division they are in, London South-West, Division III, is being extended to 12 clubs, not ten as is the case at the moment.League secretary Mike Ward explained the thinking behind the move.’It is to come in line with the rest of the country,’ he said, ‘as all of the northern leagues and most of the midlands and south-west at level seven are playing in 12-team leagues.’He is confident that the teams currently in the division will appreciate four extra fixtures, two at home and two away, with the promotion of two sides from London IV South-West, although Jersey RFC’s coach, Dai Burton, was surprised at the timing of the news.’It is a bit of a surprise,’ he said.

‘If I’d known about it at the start of the season I would have blooded more young players.’I think on the sponsorship front we won’t have much of a problem and I welcome the extra fixtures, because this season we’ve had blank weekends, which have affected us.’It will be good to have two extra home games and I’m pleased for Old Blues (currently propping up the division) because they’re a great bunch of guys and it’s such a great club.’If any team did go down, it would certainly be Old Blues, who haven’t won a game and have conceded 396 points in their ten games played.And Burton hasn’t given up on hopes of promotion, although Guildford and Old Wimbledonians have pulled away at the top of the division.’There isn’t a great deal to choose between third place and last,’ he said, adding that what he wants to do during the rest of the season is to give youth, in the form of some of the players in Jersey’s excellent under-19 team, a chance to push their way into the first team squad.

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