A second consecutive Championship season ended on Saturday with Birmingham & Solihull once again bottom of the table.
Russell Earnshaw’s men have tasted victory just once in the last seven games and not at all in the previous four.
They ended the campaign with the fewest wins in the division – just four from 22 attempts.
Yet momentum being the odd thing that it is, some sort of barometer measuring mental fortitude and confidence levels, it turns out the prevailing mood at Damson Park is one of optimism.
Certainly if you listen to director of rugby Russell Earnshaw who, buoyed by his first try for the club after nearly 70 games, is fairly effervescent after last Saturday’s respectable 27-20 reverse to leaders Worcester.
“I don’t know if we had a buzz at this stage last season but it certainly feels good now,” the 35-year-old claimed.
“I am feeling pretty confident going into the play-offs, I get that confidence from the performances against Worcester, Doncaster, Bristol and Rotherham.
“We know that we have done that with so many injuries. We have got 11 forwards injured at the moment and about four backs, so we are just going to get stronger and stronger.”
Of those 11, Earnshaw expects to have seven ready for the Pool C starter against Esher, probably on March 13.
That will bring the experienced Matt Long back into the front-row, the talismanic Semisi Taulava, Adrian Griffiths and Danny Wright into the second and Mark Hopley, Jack Bentall and Adam Clayton into the back row.
John Brake, Will Lawson, Tom Foden and Ian Davey will return to add depth behind the scrum and sharpen Bees’ ability to score breakaway tries like the one that involved four players and sprung Rob Connolly against Warriors.
All of which inspires Earnshaw’s incredible positivity ahead of what is probably the definite Group of Death.
“I am looking forward to it now, I am really, really excited about it,” he said. “I was watching some of the Super rugby the other day – which was fantastic – and then I flicked over the Brive-Stade Francais game where Brive are fighting for their lives against relegation – I found myself watching that.
“That’s what I want to play, I want to play those kind of games where there’s desperation and high stakes.”
That cocktail certainly produced the best from the Damson Park side last season – despite the fact they went into those play-offs having not won for 28 matches.
By comparison, the three weeks and four matches that have passed since Rotherham were downed 25-24 seem a mere heartbeat.
