It won’t be a cakewark for Cov’s cash warns Brightwell
NICK VERDIER previews the battle for promotion from National One where big-spending Coventry start as favourites
Birmingham Moseley back-rower Chris Brightwell reckons Coventry deserve their favourites tag for promotion to the Championship but he is adamant it will not be as straightforward as some might think.
Following the demise of London Welsh, relegation from the Championship was frozen last season meaning that while National One champions Hartpury College were promoted to the second tier no club came down, instantly reducing the number of title contenders for this season by one.
Coventry have been chasing promotion for the past couple of seasons and Rowland Winter has invested a lot in his squad, bringing in the likes of former Scotland international Alex Grove, London Irish No.8 Luke Narraway, Sale centre Sam Tuitupou and Doncaster’s barn-storming flanker Latu Makaafi.
With such a squad, it is hard to bet against them returning to the Championship eight years after being relegated but historical clubs will be pushing them hard.
Brightwell said: “Coventry have invested a lot of money and are making a lot of noise when it comes to being promotion contenders.
“They made it clear they want to go back to the Championship, but it won’t be as easy as some people might think. The National One is tough old league with 30 games during the season and other teams be challenging.
“You can always count on the likes of Ampthill, Plymouth Albion, Rosslyn Park and Blackheath to be near the top of the table
“It’s easy to get motivated for the big games - it’s away games against bottom clubs you have to watch for”
so there’ll a few big games in store.
“It’s easy to get motivated for the big games – it’s the away games against bottom clubs you have to watch for. Last year we lost at Blaydon who got relegated and that can cost you.
“As for us we’re confident we can hold our own in this league but we’ll quickly know where we stand with the first two games against Ampthill and Coventry.
“Four or five of our players switched to Coventry over the summer so it’ll be good to face them. It’ll add some spice to a very good fixture.”
Change was the key word at Billesley Common this summer with Kevin Maggs being replaced by Richard Protheroe as director of rugby while Worcester’s defence coach Simon Cross has taken over as head coach.
It was the same with the playing squad with Brightwell part of only a handful to stay from last season.
But things have moved quickly and Moseley gave themselves a huge confidence boost last week with a 24-15 win over Worcester in pre-season.
Brightwell added: “There are only seven players who stayed from last season so this summer has been about getting used to new personal, but it’s been really good all the same.
“Simon’s come with his new views on how he wants us to play the game and he’s changed the structures we had in place under Kevin but we have picked it up quite quickly.
“We’re looking good in pre-season and that win against Worcester last week have given us a huge lift.
“We’ve had a lot of changes at the club over the summer whether it was management or players so we thought we’d go out there and give it a go and it went well.
“But we know we’ll be judged on the league games starting next week with the reception of Ampthill.”