The problem for Warriors fans, as I see it, is that up until Christmas they believed everyone else saw there side as very much the 'enfant terrible' of The Champ, disliked by many for reasons which they felt were unfair, and in the case of some supporters (like those from Cov) grossly hypocritical. We see it differently, of course, but as a group it united them against a common foe and in so doing gave them strength.

Rae has said previously that he'll only bring in players who will strengthen the squad and his track record as far as recruitment is concerned is impressive...Imagine an additional 9 players added to this squad all better than those leaving. Not only does it give the coaches more options, it should also raise performance levels to even greater heights and narrow the gap between ourselves and Ealing, hopefully enabling us to be the best of the rest which is pretty much all we

Interestingly, before the game, Cov led The Champ with more offloads than any other team in the league this season. They seem to have adapted better than most to the recent law changes regarding the lowering of the tackle, which now make offloads less risky than before, as noted by Shaun Edwards in today's The Rugby Paper. But that is true of the opposition, too, which is perhaps one reason why we're seeing more tries scored this season.

It wasn't a complete Cov performance by any means, but Cov were disciplined and denied Hartpury any sort of meaningful platform on which to build. At no point in the game did they lead Cov, although Hartpury had pegged us back to 14-14 at the break despite Cov looking the better of the two sides in the first half.

...but Cov have slowly built up momentum and despite what was, for me, a pretty average display against Cambridge, they've consistently picked up points of late and look to be in a good place right now. A significant amount of recognition should be given to Alex Rae and his coaching team. Despite facing criticism early on from certain quarters, they managed to ignore these external distractions and concentrate on their strengths, effectively responding to their critics

After establishing a seemingly decisive position at halftime with a 24-7 lead and dominating the last 15 minutes with a four-try salvo, Cov lost their discipline resulting in a series of penalties that allowed an increasingly confident Archers' team back into a game that appeared all but over when the outstanding Allan Ferrie scored just 5 minutes into the second half, extending Cov's lead to 24 points.

I'm not sure whether the stats would back this up, but it felt as if we kicked far less than we have at times this season and with far fewer handling errors going forward, we caused the Scottish defence all sorts of problems and in truth, they struggled to handle the pace and directness of our runners. The penalty count, 21-7 in favour of Cov, is indicative of the pressure that Scottish found themselves under and I thought they were a little lucky to get away with just a coup

A totting up of the individual attendances last weekend (Round 1) indicates that 17580 were present at individual games and a further 12420 plus watched via ClubberTV. I imagine that figure will drop a little once the novelty wears off but it does appear a significant number, one that The Champ certainly feels is worth publicising. It would be really interesting to know if that figure is in line with original projections and whether televising all the Champ games is financia