There is no other dominion where the Law of Sod reigns quite so supreme as in rugby union where fortunes, fixtures and fitness are all governed by the principle ‘If it can go wrong, it probably will’.

Billesley Common has found itself clutched by the long arm of that particular law more often than most during its years near the foot of the RFU Championship and it is a credit to all involved that key injuries, fixture congestion and plain and simple bad luck have not been allowed to terminally undermine the Red & Black cause.

Yet even now, with Maggs’s Mighty Moppets playing out of their tiny young skins, Sod’s Ruling is never too far away and if there was one player Moseley didn’t need to lose to a long-term injury it was experienced second row Mike Powell, their keystone signing of the summer.

A quartet of locks left Moseley in the off-season, taking with them astonishing amount of Championship knowledge and no little ability and ex-London Welsh leader Powell was the man charged with replacing elements of all four.

Richard Stott’s lineout supremacy, David Lyons’s ball carrying, Paul Spivey’s work-rate and Dan Sanderson’s edge all rolled into one, vastly experienced and accomplished player. And why don’t we make him captain too?

Guess what happened next. You’ve got it, the first man to go down with a serious dent this term was Powell. With ten minutes to go and the points in the bag during their round three visit to Jersey, the Welshman went into a tackle and felt a pop, following by a shooting pain up his right arm.

The result? Surgery to reattach the distal biceps tendon, arm in a sling for six weeks, unable to drive, out of action until the end of January. Wouldn’t you know it, Sod’s Law.

If he returns for the trip to Plymouth Albion on January 26 Powell will have missed 11 Championship matches, or half a season in old money.

“My heart sank when I first found out how serious it was,” the 33-year-old admitted. “When I saw the specialist in Birmingham it was a bit of a shock because he said I had completely snapped it and that I would be out for six months.

“I’ve had a few other opinions, including the guy who looks after the Welsh rugby team who was a lot more optimistic, that cheered me up but I was petrified at first.

“James Tideswell at London Welsh had it last year, apparently it’s quite a common injury for people who do a lot of weights. I wouldn’t class myself as a massive body builder but obviously I do some.

“I’ve been very lucky with injuries throughout my career so 12-16 weeks out in the middle of the season is probably the worst injury I’ve ever had.

“And it’s affected everything, I can’t bend my arm so getting to Moseley without being able to drive means I have to rely on lifts and taxis and sleeping is difficult. It’s not a lot of fun.”

Kevin Maggs must have needed to sit down when Powell first revealed the wreckage, the Moseley head coach had to contemplate the next three months with two 20-year-olds, Addison Lockley and Buster Lawrence and Old Father Time himself, 21-year-old Liam Mather, in the Moseley engine-room.

Barely a fortnight after Powell was struck down Lockley looked like he’d done time with Mike Tyson after a clash of heads at Bristol and Mather was struggling for first team opportunities following an inauspicious debut at Bedford. Second row options weren’t so much thin on the ground as emaciated.

Thankfully, though, both Lockley and Lawrence have responded magnificently in Moseley’s hour of need and Powell does not even try to conceal his admiration for the youngsters.

“People don’t realise what a big job calling the lineout is, they just think you run up, tell the hooker where to throw it and off you go,” Powell said.

“But there’s so much to it and Addison has done outstandingly and is only getting better. We were a new team at the start of the year and we had to get used to how Cavesy and Wilkesy throw and how certain people lift and Addison had to learn all that too.

“And Buster has played really well. He was definitely man of the match against Bristol and every game he plays you can see he has picked up another couple of things.

“In fact you can see that with the whole pack. Hilts will say something on a Tuesday or a Thursday and you can see it coming out in matches on a Saturday. The pack just don’t look like they are missing me, it’s a bit worrying really. They have gone really well

“We had a bit of a rough 20 minutes against Newcastle, against what is effectively a Premiership set of forwards with internationals in it but at times I thought we held them quite well.

“We weren’t bettered by Bristol and on Saturday against Llanelli we were well on top so that was great to see.”

Which means for now Powell’s input has switched mainly to the coaching side of the sport. He has spent a considerable time analysing Doncaster’s lineouts ahead of the league match at Castle Park on October 26 and has also looked at Saturday’s cup opponents London Scottish.

“We could be hit hard with any injuries to key personnel but the boys we are .bringing in are really stepping up to the mark. And we have a relationship with Northampton and when the A League is done for a bit that might come into play a bit more.”

Nevertheless, just in case rugby’s magistrates choose to invoke the Law of Sod again any time soon it’s a case of ‘Cotton wool for Mr Pienaar.’

n Moseley have been presented with a latest hi-tech defibrillator by The Hearts of England Association.

The charity is a West Midlands organisation run by volunteers who raise money to support specific projects identified by the cardiology departments of local hospitals.

Over the past 12 years £220,000 has been donated and Peter Grimes, Moseley’s club doctor, welcomed the latest gift. “It is vital from a medical perspective that we are prepared for all circumstances irrespective of how unlikely or unusual,” Grimes said.

“The generous donation assures me as the club’s chief medical officer that we will be prepared in the event of serious injury on or off the pitch.

“The Hearts of England Association’s generosity will reassure visitors to Billesley Common we are able to administer vital first aid in the first ‘golden hour’’ after incidents.”