What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Sounds like the RFU need to look at the emergency provision at this club, the ground is in the middle of nowhere, quite a distance from the club house. If they wish to remain in division one they need to up their facilities. No flood lights and no or little emergency services. This is not a sour loser but just being sensible.

With continued rule changes being expected of the clubs in this division, i find it hard to believe that there is no mandatory accessibility by an emergency vehicle onto the pitch or directly next to it on the flat. In this case or any serious neck /back injury this provides an increased level of care needed by this sort of player injury.
Is it the case where we have yet another club where health and safety is not looked at properly.
If the rain had been worse , the foot holding could of been treacherous.

All fair enough gents, but before we get onto Ampthill too much I've also heard that the ambulance didn't (or couldn't) go to where it was directed by the club's officials.

I've been here before in my playing days, where both squads had to push an ambulance out of difficulties after rescuing a injured player from a remote pitch. Funny at the time, but could've have been more serious on reflection.

I make no comment here on whether the problem lies with Ampthill, or with the ambulance service, or a combination of circumstances, but I think I'll leave it to our club to raise the issue.

Please feel free to comment and offer your perspective as you see fit, but also consider that we may not quite be in full possession of the facts here.

It goes without saying that I wish Olly a speedy recovery.

Russ.

One factor I have checked out with the physios is that an ambulance was called for immediately.
The access on to the ground however in my view is far from satisfactory.

Quote:

John Butler
One factor I have checked out with the physios is that an ambulance was called for immediately.
The access on to the ground however in my view is far from satisfactory.

John Butler

I have driven up this way into the ground for the last two seasons. It is a very tricky drive, one to taken at a very low speed. It must have been a very uncomfortable ride for the injured player (Olly Povass) I spoke to Rob Moody about this and we both agreed the best and quickest option should have been the Air Ambulance.

It's the first time in my memory that I can recall that no two minutes silence was observed before a game on this remembrance weekend. I hope I am not alone in my very unhappy thoughts for this.

Quite right to point that out Mick. Pretty poor from this rugby club especially as the area around the club was used in ww1 for training some 2235 troops of which some 707 died for their country.

As to the match itself. We were beaten by a more cohesive unit who scored 2 late pushover tries late on in the game. In truth we were second best for most of the first half and were fortunate to lead at half time.
Our side played as individuals for the most part against a dogged cohesive side who showed the kind of grit which we hoped Coventry might have displayed.

Mark and JB are perfectly correct in their reactions to Amptill's facilities. A player was left lying on a stretcher for some 45 minutes while an ambulance navigated its way across a challenging terrain. Yes it was a Coventry player, but it could just as easily have been any player from either side. Full marks to our staff who made Olly as comfortable as possible and indeed Amptill's staff also played their part in looking after him.

Why the pitch at the clubhouse is not played on surprises me. It is time for the Rugby Union to take action to ensure that all grounds give suitable access to emergency vehicles. Health and safety of players is paramount. If they can find £22.000 payments per player on International duty they can surely find resources to assist those clubs whose facilities need bringing up to standard



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016:11:12:21:59:16 by Geoff Kennedy.

The issue with the arrival of the ambulance was instead of following the route to pitch level they drove to the top of the ridge, which is where I believe CovMicl may also have been driven.

Guys

lets please calm down in in the vitriol which we are showing to Ampthill, some of the sour grapes on here is astonishing! The only comment on this board which i agree with is Covmick's regarding the 2 minute silence, this should have happened, but it did not, the reason for this is for Ampthill to explain.
Everything else is, at this point merely conjecture, we do not know why the ambulance took a long time to arrive and people calling for helicopters.....seriously, please take a reality check. If you dial the emergency services they will ask you a series of questions, depending on the answers you give, will indicate how much of an emergency it is, now i hope and pray that Olly is ok and when he left in the ambulance he was conscious and talking to people, he seemed ok and i hope this proves to be fact.
Back to the game, we lost it because are backs seem to be in disarray and they certianly do not look like they have a game changer within them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:11:12:23:41:40 by Moosemagic.

For me the game was a big disappointment, yes the weather could of been better but it was like 2 boxers in the middle of the ring aware of each others strengths and just trying to combat them.At the same time forgetting what had been learnt over the last three months.
Line breakers and runners just werent there at all today , made all the worse by stokes going off injured. The centre partnership through up no attacking ideas at all.
I felt very sorry for boris and price who pushed their bodies to the edge and just about survived.
I was unable to single out any individual as man of the match.
The honeymoon period is over, winter truly began .Its time for the team to refind its mojo and kick on again. Why is the scrum struggling to reignite its dominance both in the tight and loose.
PS...ref wasnt too bad today
First time i have ever seen John Butler herranged , by Ampthill supporters.

Olly was released from hospital in the late evening. No serious injury according to Hannah the physio on her twitter feed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:11:13:01:20:40 by Cov_InPeace.

As far as I can see the reason there was no two minutes silence before the game is because Ampthill don't have a tannoy system, so there's no way the crowd can be brought together for such an occasion. There are no announcements at all during the game. And there isn't even a clock!
Frankly, the facilities are poor. Having said that the welcome we were given was very warm and, in general, the Ampthil people are very nice.
As for the game, probably the less said the better. We matched them up front for three quarters of the game, but we are clearly lacking in the backs. The backs never looked creative or threatening, there were no line breaks, they never looked inventive and there was no cutting edge. On the basis of the last two games (Blaydon and Ampthill) the future does not look promising.
Very pleased for Olly that the hospital has discharged him. It's most unfortunate for him to have the injury - it was his first full game back from injury. Now we wish him well for a speedy recovery.

I wasn't there yesterday but went last season and found Ampthill to be a very friendly club. Someone greeted fans as they entered the clubhouse and another official shook hands with Cov fans as they left. They have had a remarkable rise over the years and fair play to them. As to whether facilities are up to this level's standard is for the league to decide.

Moose - no vitriol against our genial and welcoming hosts.
The lack of facilities are at issue
I heard the abuse meted out to JB by one of their supporters - and I emphasise just ONE.
JB was rightly concerned about the wellbeing of a player and the lack of access to the pitchside for the ambulance.
We are all agreed that our team did not perform.

Its quite easy for ampthill to say to the officials and to cov to have a minutes silence before kick off. Form up in front of the crowd, job done.

Have a look on line at the importance of this area in different guises during the first world war.

Thank you Geoff for the support.
My ire was certainly as you say totally towards the welfare & safety of players.
Earlier to the incident GK s referring to, in answer to a comment made about the difficulty of support services reaching anywhere near the pitch area, the response I received was'' well its watch happens on the pitch that is most important '' !
I do not propose saying anything further on the matter.

Astonishing....good job it wasnt his son attempting to get to Bedford hospital

Two minutes silence would have been held on thousands of pitches around the country this weekend without the need for any kind of tannoy or sound system. Very disrespectful, a bad decision not to have one.

On the playing side, with all the training the players do now compared to last season I'm sure I read somewhere that Cov's fitness would tell at the end of matches. I would have thought that in those conditions yesterday that would have come to the fore. A quick look on Statbunker (admittedly not updated for all teams) and Cov have conceded 16 tries in the 61-80 minute window, the second worst in the league so far and a great deal more than the team's above us. Will be interesting next week against RW's old team.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:11:13:20:28:24 by Wazeroonie.

Quote:

John Butler
Thank you Geoff for the support.
My ire was certainly as you say totally towards the welfare & safety of players.
Earlier to the incident GK s referring to, in answer to a comment made about the difficulty of support services reaching anywhere near the pitch area, the response I received was'' well its watch happens on the pitch that is most important '' !
I do not propose saying anything further on the matter.

Sounds fair enough John, you're probably wasting your breath anyway if someone has that attitude.

It does feel like a legitimate concern in terms of player welfare, I'd be surprised if the club didn't have a quiet word.

At the end of the day, we only have to play their once a year, Ampthill's players are running that risk every other game. You would think it's in their interests to have a discussion with the local ambulance service about what happened.

Surely safety is an aspect for spectators as well- what would have happened if one had a sudden heart attack.
It has been a bugbear of mine for many seasons that minimum standards do not apply to many clubs that have climbed the leagues-despite being able to spend money on players.
There is a real possibility of a player or spectator taking out an compensation claim in the future.