Dings ready for title race to go down to the wire
IN A bizarre turn of events last weekend, Dings Crusaders were thanking arch rivals Clifton for doing them a huge favour in the title race.
Dings leapfrogged their title rivals and the league’s pacesetters Luctonians – who they beat in February – after local foes Clifton won 10-8 at the table-toppers.
Stean Williams’ side were comfortable victors away at Loughborough 43-10. and the Dings director of rugby points out the value of that win, given that numerous sides have come unstuck away at the Students this season.
Williams told The Rugby Paper: “Clifton are a good team and any of the top six teams are capable of beating each other on their day. It didn’t come as a surprise to me Clifton turned them over as they’ve got a strong squad, so it was great to see that result come in, especially as we’d finished an hour before.
“Loughborough isn’t an easy place to go, shown by some of their results at home. They are still the highest scoring side in the league, they like to run the ball from everywhere.
“They scored early from a mistake by us and put us under pressure. The scoreline reflected the game in the end, but didn’t reflect the first 15 minutes as we had to work hard for that win.
Earlier in the season, Camborne went there on a bit of a high and took a bit of a hiding that day (82-25). Loughborough are capable of that, they just lack a bit of physicality, but in regards to their attacking style they are a good team.”
Being top of the table comes with a target on your back and, with three games still to play, Williams expects another twist or two in what has been an enthralling title race so far.
He added: “There’s still tough games to go, shown by our tough test against Exeter University. We need to take each game as it comes, one week at a time and look after our own results. We’ve been chasing for a long time, and to now go into the business end of the season on top, the ball is in our court and it’s now down to us to stay there.
“We’ve got two home games out of the last three, which definitely helps, but now we’re top of the table every one of those teams will want to come here and ruin our party. So we’ve got three cup finals in front of us.”
Dings fly-half Jacob Perry came into this weekend on 121 points in a stand-out campaign, but the Bristol-based side’s season could have unravelled due to a recent injury to Harry Hone, who has scored 11 tries this season.
Williams added: “We’re lucky we’ve got good squad depth. We lost Harry Hone the week before the Luctonians game and the players who have come in have done a really good job.
“Hopefully, we’ll strengthen up after the Easter rest period and see out a solid campaign.”