NATIONAL ONE
BRIAN DICK
Rugby Correspondent
Moseley attempt to lance their top table boil at Old Deer Park tomorrow as they travel to London without a win against any of the leading eight teams in the division.
All six of the Billesley outfit’s victories so far this season – a respectable number that keeps them safely above the Championship cut-off point, have come against sides in the bottom half of National One, though the feeling is growing that they are on the brink of claiming a prized scalp.
They nearly did so in their last away match – a fog-bound gut-wrencher at Bedford, where the hosts scored and converted a try with virtually the last play to win 17-15.
Add that disappointment to the ones experienced against Nottingham, Doncaster and Cornish Pirates and it seems just a matter of time before the law of averages rules in their favour.
Certainly prop George Davis thinks so. The 29-year-old is in line for just the third start of his Moseley career at London Welsh this weekend, against a team whose scrum he rates as one of the best in the league.
How he shores up at tighthead will be key to whether Mose can leave the capital with the victory they need to take their campaign to another level.
“We have to go to Welsh and get it sorted, not leave it until the last ten minutes or the last two,” he said. “That win against one of the big teams feels as though it is just round the corner and once we get one we can kick on.”
However Davis, a servant of many clubs in a career that has lasted more than a decade, does not accept that a good full-time team will always beat a good part-time one.
Stints with Bristol, Worcester, Exeter and most recently Plymouth pre-date his arrangement with Moseley, which is strictly semi-pro and allows him to train as an electrician.
“I have been at full-time clubs and we prepare just as well as any of them. At Moseley we concentrate on what is important, it is about quality rather than quantity. We might not be around the club as much but when we are there, all the guys are focused.”
They will need to be at Old Deer Park. London Welsh are coming off three consecutive home defeats – against Pirates, Nottingham and Coventry – a record they will be looking to put right against a team they beat 15-9 on the first day of the season.
Moseley follow up an impressive second-half display against Manchester in which they added five tries to the two they scored in the first.
Teenage centre Henry Trinder claimed three and with Jack Adams likely to return from Gloucester, head coach Ian Smith could have a selection quandary in midfield. Captain Andy Reay’s neck injury might make the decision an easy one but if he recovers, having been taken off against the Mancunians, Trinder’s reward for his outstanding personal display could be a place on the wing ahead of Nathan Bressington.
Charlie Sharples and James Rodwell, fresh from his England Sevens debut in South Africa, boost a squad that has very few injuries as they begin the second half of a promising season.
