By Paul I
September 21 2025

Just under two weeks away from the start of The Champ, I thought I would have a go at being  ' Psychic Paul' and see how it might all end. Here goes. 

1 Ealing Trailfinders , still the team to beat imo quietly and assiduously changing their squad and not shouting from the rooftops.  A 3peat? 

2 Worcester Warriors, back on the scene, powered by emotion, hyperbole and £££'s, anything less than top spot will be considered a failure.Keen gardening section.

3 Doncaster Knights, believe they should be in the Prem with their ground standards, strong finish to their last season.  Should be there or thereabouts.

4 Bedford Blues ,have retained the spine of their side with seasoned performers. Have maintained their link-up with Saints as their feeder club for the Prem outfit

5 Cornish Pirates, finished well but have lost a few of their star players, have brought a few in, DR's with Exeter and always a difficult ground to visit and win at.

6 Coventry , another huge squad change around, seem to be bonding as a tight group , but a challenging opening month will set the seasons tone. 

7 Hartpury, been very quiet in the summer, now re-signing players who served them well last season. A strong home record and need to improve away form. 

8 Nottingham, the divisions real entertainers, fun to watch , but will have been impacted by rivals cherry picking .  Still have a Leicester Tigers tie-up? 

9 London Scottish, another side victims to rivals grabbing their players.  Still have a Harlequins tie-up but will need to improve on their away form. 

10 Ampthill , strong at home, rumoured about to have more Saracens finances thrown at them to improve their infrastructure as well as the use of Sarries players. 

11 Chinnor, a strong debut last season, fairly solid at home and quietly building. Should be okay and hospitality is top notch for any visiting supporter. 

12 Caldy, what you see is what you get.  A very strong forward based plan of attack, strong at home but a bit porous and not the best travellers. 

13 Richmond, difficult to gauge but winners of a competitive National One probably indicates a game plan and a decent desire to win.  Nice to have them back. 

14 Cambridge a very big turnover of players, ins and outs, suggest another season of struggle for the Blood and Sand.  Another very welcoming place to visit. 

And that's it for me.  If rumours, titbits or  leaking of information is to be believed we could be into another stretch of upsets, vitriolic bad governance and elite pandering.  Dear god, it's our game. Let's just ruddy play the game, follow the alleged mantra of ' Grow The Game' and just enjoy it.  

Whichever team you support , I wish you well and hope to see you on the terraces.  Good luck for the coming season. 

Paul’s Perilous Positional Predictions, 2025/2026

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 21/09/2025 10:40

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
21/09/2025 10:40

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:10:24:21:31:23 by Kimbo.

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Kimbo
21/09/2025 12:15

'Keen gardening section'.
You're not wrong...

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covkid1953
21/09/2025 12:58

Fair assessment I think. My thinking is that the middle of the table pack, including ourselves at Cov, will look for consolidation this season. No-one is going to break the bank chasing Ealing and Wuss. There might be a dark horse, probably Doncaster.

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Kimbo
21/09/2025 13:34

Tend to agree. Pointless league yet again. Concentrate on getting ground ducks in a row and reassess next year.

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Paul Rossborough
21/09/2025 17:34

Quote:

Kimbo
Tend to agree. Pointless league yet again. Concentrate on getting ground ducks in a row and reassess next year.

What is happening with the ground, anything or nothing? These proposals have been floated about that many times I’ve lost interest!

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TryBlues
27/09/2025 21:50

I think Chinnor should be higher and Blues are stronger than last season, but will be hard to replicate it. I don't think there will be much between the top 4 and given we are part-time/semi-pro to be up there will be good going.

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Kimbo
28/09/2025 14:08

Quote:

TryBlues
I think Chinnor should be higher and Blues are stronger than last season, but will be hard to replicate it. I don't think there will be much between the top 4 and given we are part-time/semi-pro to be up there will be good going.

TBF the semi-pro thing is a bit of a red herring. We've lost quite a few very good players because they wanted to go part time to clubs that pay a fair wage which can be topped up with a good non-rugby salary. You've gained a few of them yourselves.
Cov may be 'full time', but salaries are never going to be particularly special without the funding that the Prem gets.

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TryBlues
30/09/2025 01:07

There is no doubt that we pay decent wages and are able to attract high calibre players, who can earn more doing 2 jobs.

The 3 days of training is probably not too far off most full time clubs, it is the analytical and recovery sessions where we would lack. However the focus is if we are good at what we do then it doesn’t matter as much about the opposition. Although the better the opposition the harder it is as they will do their homework more on you.

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