With the start of the season so to speak just a few days away I thought it was about time I reviewed what our season may be like.
Obviously as a fan I do have some concerns over our squad size just by the fact we had to find two players in trials, as well London have lost both their warm up games. However since reading other reports we can see London had some of their stars out of injury. Talking of which it does amaze me how a team who have just spent a month in Australia can be picking up injuries already. Surly we have pushed them to hard to early or the players just aren’t fit enough? To me this is a major question and needs to be answered fast. If London do actually have all these injuries questions have to be asked why as I wouldn’t expect the list to be that long before he season has just begun.
I hope that the game against Oldham will be a good one and a London win should be the only expectation. However it should also give Tony Rea’s men a chance to get a feel for Griffin Park once more and start to take in some of the atmosphere which may have been lacking in the previous warm up games. I would much rather London win but then try out some new ideas and try out players in difference positions during the match if the win is secure. That way if there is a problem during a game we have players to cover it. The player who immediately comes to mind is Dom Peters. Although I think he’s a great player I feel his best position is in the forwards due to his size and speed. I’ve always said one of our problems is that we don’t have blindingly fast wingers and this has been shown on some occasions when we have the lost the foot race to the line.
London have brought in some great players and players that are English, this is vital for increasing the popularity of the game in London. This is because it means the kids can see a realistic role model. Before when the team had say 10 foreigners the kids wouldn’t have such an enthusiasm to be like their favourite player because he is not from England and so would struggle to see them playing the game when there older. Out of all the English players we have I feel there are 3 that have a great chance of making it on the international stage this year, they are, Chris Thorman, Paul Sykes and Rob Purdham.
One of London’s problems last year was that they seemed to struggle against lower opposition. This year that is just not an option with London having the easier fixture list we need to make sure we make that our advantage and beat every single team home and way in that list. We cannot afford to let it slip because if we do then we will almost certainly blow our chances of success in the league this season. Of course consistently has been a major problem and we just have to hope the experience we have in our squad means we do not lose games we should have won like season. Last year London had a thing of beating the top 6 teams at home and taking them all the way away. All we can hope for is that we do the same again but this time go one step further and beat some top 6 teams away to. Teams like Leeds, Castleford and Hull all come to mind.
One of the reasons for London’s success against the top teams has to be because of the great atmosphere at Griffin Park. With season ticket sales and gold membership’s sales more than last year you have to expect that Griffin Park is getting more fall as more and more people want to come and see a winning team in London. This has to largely be down to not only the players but also the staff behind the scenes. I know they work really hard and with the increased sales it is showing all their handwork is paying off.
One thing can be sure this season is not going to be easy but one thing is certain we are going to see some great games of rugby, all starting on Saturday. Although we say it every year this season really is London’s best chance of making the illusive top 6, if they don’t make it then I would expect many people to go and London to take a long rethink of how things are done. The squad is at its strongest and failure is just not an option.
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