Exeter Chiefs v Otley 

Already facing relegation, Otley are now largely playing for pride.However with speculation rife that the 3 additionally relegated sides will receive some form of financial compensation to cushion the blow of descending into tier three of English rugby it clearly is in their best interests to finish as strongly as possible.

To put it mildly Otleys circumstances have been difficult for most of the season and Peter Clegg, Head of Rugby a long serving stalwart of the club has worked tirelessly to ensure that they were able to complete their establshed fixtures. In this he has been assisted by the players honouring contracts despite having suffered a reported 33% pay cut.

It seems inevitable that there will be a mass exodus of players at the end of the season and the prospect of moving from a semi-professional team to an amateur one remains a real possibilty.

Otleys playing record so far this season speaks volumes , having played 27 and with only three wins and a draw to cling to. They have scored only 394 points, whilst conceding 979.

In normal circumsatnces a massive points win by the Chiefs would have been the minimum expected from the Sandy Park faithful. However the Chiefs own bandwagon has similarly hit a rocky road since the disasterous outcome of the historic'double header'at Billesley Common with wheels seemingly flying off in all directions. Perhaps a return to the smoother pastures of Devon for their last 2 fixtures will give coach Rob Baxter and his crew a chance to galvanise the team for last effort before the summer break and a major overhaul of the wagon takes effect.