The Play offs – what & when

[Communications Team]

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The Play offs – what & when

After the ‘regular’ season concludes with Moseley’s match at Cornish Pirates all teams will enter a mini league of 4 clubs and play each other home and away. (3 home and 3 away).
The play offs start on the weekend of 9-11 March and conclude on Sat 21st April. As during the regular season the games can be played Friday, Saturday or Sunday, whilst the final matches all kick off on the same day/time.

Points mean.....prizes?
Points are awarded in the same manner as during the regular season: 4 points for a win, a bonus point for 4 or more tries, a bonus point for losing by 7 or less and 2 points for a draw.
All the clubs in Pool C carry over 1 point for each win achieved during the regular season.
The lowest placed side after all the 6 rounds are completed will be relegated to National League One.

The Play offs – seeding for fixtures
The fixture matrix for the play offs is based on the finishing position in the league. 9th position becomes ‘Seed 1’, 10th ‘Seed 2’, 11th ‘Seed 3’ and 12th ‘Seed 4’.
Seed 1 Alternate A&H. Seed 1 finishes at Home.
Seed 2 Alternate H&A. Seed 2 finishes at Away
Seed 3 A, 2H, 2A, H
Seed 4 H, 2A, 2H, A

The Play offs - who play whom, when and where
Round 1 – weekend of Fri 9th to Sunday 11th March
Team 12 v Team 9
Team 10 v Team 11

Rd 2 - 16-18 Mar
Team 9 v Team 10
Team 11 v Team 12

Rd 3 - 23-25 Mar
Team 10 v Team 12
Team 11 v Team 9

Rd 3R (Reverse) - 30 Mar-1 Apr
Team 9 v Team 11
Team 12 v Team 10

Rd 2R - 13-15 Apr
Team 10 v Team 9
Team 12 v Team 11

Rd 1R - 21-Apr
Team 9 v Team 12
Team 11 v Team 10

Any clearer?
Pool C as it stands (after matches played over the weekend of 10-12 Feb)

9 Moseley 6 Wins 33 points
10 Plymouth Albion 6 -29
11 London Scottish 5 -29
12 Esher 2 – 14

Remaining fixtures
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Moseley v Bedford, 15:00
Plymouth Albion v Nottingham, 15:00

Sunday, 19 February 2012
Leeds Carnegie v Esher, 15:00
London Scottish v London Welsh, 14:00

Saturday, 25 February 2012
Cornish Pirates v Moseley, 14:00
Esher v Plymouth Albion, 14:00
Rotherham Titans v London Scottish, 14:00

[markd]

Let's make no mistake - this is going to be the toughest Pool C yet. There will be no walkovers, no rabbits, no easy wins. Esher saved their money until the end of January and have spent wisely by the looks of things. Plymouth have concerns over their future wherever they finish and, to an extent, can play with wild abandon. London Scottish have run a lot of sides close and done the double over us.

On the positive side, Moseley's performances against teams higher in the table has been much better this season than in the past few - that, however, no longer matters.

The play-off system is iniquitous, but we all knew the rules at the start of the season and whingeing will not bring points. Only hard work, discipline and full-on commitment will do for the last seven games. It is almost certain that Esher or Plymouth will gain an extra carry-forward point (unless they draw) and London Scottish are quite capable of turning over Roth.

This is the best Moseley side since the Twickenham heroes, but it also faces its toughest task.

Come on Mose!