London Scottish v Nottingham

Good evening and welcome back to the Athletic Ground for today’s Round 12 encounter against Nottingham in the Greene King IPA Championship. I will take this opportunity to welcome the officials, the travelling Nottingham support and of course the London Scottish faithful.

I hope everyone enjoyed the start of the Six Nations last weekend. On Thursday myself, along with a strong team of London Scottish cyclists, took part in the Wounded Lions 500 Challenge alongside former Scottish captain and Exiles player, Rob Wainwright.

We joined forces with Rob and his team at Twickenham Stadium, and took part in two legs of this challenge to deliver the match day ball to Murrayfield in time for the Calcutta Cup on Saturday. It’s all in aid of raising funds for Doddie Weir’s foundation ‘My Name’5 Doddie’ and Tom Smith’s foundation ‘40TUDE’.

Thank you so much for all of you who have donated thus far and helped us to raise over £11,000. Any donations, big or small, are much appreciated and can be made here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/londonscottishwoundedlions500

Back to tonight’s game, Nottingham are a team that we have played on several occasions this season in the Championship Cup and the League. The Exiles claimed the win at home at the start of the season in the Cup and then lost both away fixtures to the Midlands based side towards the end of last year.

Nottingham come into this match off the back of an impressive win away to Yorkshire Carnegie last time out and have climbed up to 8th in the table.

This is our last match under the lights this season. When this season’s fixtures were announced having so many Friday night fixtures was a concern, but I for one have thoroughly enjoyed them and the curry that have been served in pre-match hospitality.

Today’s fixture is an important one for us to move ourselves from the bottom end of the table. There are a lot of teams currently sitting on 22 points. Without another game at home until mid-March, a win tonight would mean a lot. I’m looking forward to seeing these two sides go head to head again one final time this season!

Paul Burnell – President

We’ve got to be a bit more savvy about how we’re playing games. I think we gave away a few dumb penalties against Doncaster Knights, which didn’t need to happen. Once we got to that point in the game where we were in the lead, we just needed to batten down the hatches, which we didn’t do.

We’ve had lengthy meetings on it, so we will try to make sure that it never happens again.

There’s been disappointment in camp. To lose four games on the bounce isn’t the best and I think because they’ve been such close games, which we were winning at times – it’s taken the toll on the boys. We all want to bounce back and we’ve got a good run of games coming up, so we’ve set goals and we’re ready to try and reach them.

Training has been good this week. Monday involved a lot of meetings, a lot of time sat in the classroom just making sure the boys who had maybe made mistakes last weekend know what they’re doing. We’ve got an idea of what went wrong and we need to go out on to the pitch to fix that. Tuesday involved getting the reps and skills in, Thursday was a bit more relaxed.

We’ve played Nottingham three times this season, which makes preparations for the match a little easier. All the boys already have their notes on them and know what they’re going to come up against.

Nottingham came out last week and scored a lot of tries. They’re a really good side, so it doesn’t matter how much we’ve played them every game is different. We’re just looking to improve on what we’ve done before, because they’ve beaten us twice on the road and we’ve beaten them at home so hopefully being back at the Athletic Ground will give us that edge. It should be a fast-paced game and hopefully we can claim a victory.

The whole team is looking forward to running out under the lights one last time. Friday nights have been really good for us, we’ve all had a good time. It’s nice to be able to have a game that all the fans can come down to after a busy day at work. The fans have a been absolutely amazing and they do act as that 16th man.

Enjoy the game!

Lewis Wynne – Captain

Full squad profiles, including bio and stats, can be viewed on the main club website.

It’s fair to say Nottingham’s season to date has been a mixed-bag, currently sitting in 8th position in the table on the same points as Bedford Blues (9th), Hartpury (10th) and London Scottish (11th).

The season got off to a flying start with an 83-0 cup victory over Yorkshire Carnegie, who we most-recently beat again, this time 62-10.

Nottingham topped their cup group in the end, resulting in a home quarter-final clash against Doncaster Knights which will be played on Friday 21st February.

Recent league results have been close, and Nottingham can count themselves unlucky not to be higher up the table. Doncaster notched a last-minute converted try to win the game by one point, followed by a 12-19 defeat to league-leaders Newcastle Falcons – a game in which Nottingham could have won.

The Green and Whites will be looking to build on the victory against Carnegie last time out, with games against London Scottish (today), Hartpury (14th February) and Doncaster Knights (21st February) all on the horizon.

Neil Fowkes has recently signed a one-year contract extension which is great for the club, to hopefully continue this exciting rugby that he has brought to The Bay.

Jack Spittle

Jack came through Nottingham’s university programme, and signed his first professional contract in 2016. He’s scored nine tries in ten appearances for Nottingham this season, taking his total tally to 17 tries in 32 appearances. Most-recently, Jack became the first Nottingham player to score five tries in a single match for almost 32 years.

Shane O’Leary

The Canadian international is in his second season on Trentside after enjoying a hugely successful first year at The Bay. Always dependable on kicks, O’Leary finished as the Championship’s top point scorer last season on 186. The 26-year-old has represented the Canucks 14 times, including one match against South Africa at last year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.

This week’s Spotify Playlist is supplied by Matas Jurevicius.

There is again the opportunity to sponsor a player or a member of the support staff to raise money for the club. Grab your player before your favourite goes!

The cost is £500 + VAT and the benefits that accrue to the sponsor are:

1.)   Your name or logo alongside the player in match day programme

2.)   Personal interaction with player after matches

3.)   New London Scottish replica shirt

4.)   PA announcement every time your player scores

5.)   Opportunity to use players for event or promotion

6.)   Two complimentary places in hospitality at a match of your choice

If you’re interested in sponsoring a player, please email Commercial Director, Carson Russell russecars@aol.com

The Scots are now on the road until mid-March. First up is a short journey up the M1 to face Ampthill who joined us from National 1 this season. A team we’ve faced already at home which culminated in a six all draw at the RAG. Currently sitting in sixth in the League, they’ve managed to pick up surprise wins against Coventry and Hartpury.

The following week we return to the knockout stages of Championship Cup and a trip up North to take on Newcastle Falcons in the Quarter-Finals.

We start March with another trip North to take on Yorkshire Carnegie in the League before a week’s break.

London Scottish will return home on Saturday March 14^th to play Hartpury. To book you tickets for this match click HERE and to book hospitality click HERE.

WOUNDED LIONS 50 CHALLENGE 

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us raise money for the Wounded Lions 500 Challenge all in support of Doddie Weir’s foundation ‘My Name’5 Doddie’ and Tom Smith’s choses charity ‘40TUDE’.

London Scottish put together their own cycling team which took part yesterday in two legs of the challenge, which included Club President Paul Burnell, Lions President Ian McFarlane-Bowman, Minis Chairman Iain Whyte and One Club Director Ross Peacock.

Having set off from the Athletic Ground to join forces with Rob Wainwright and his cycling team at Twickenham Stadium, the cyclists’ challenge is to deliver the match day ball to Murrayfield for the Calcutta Cup match on Saturday.

FEBRUARY HALF-TERM MULTI-SPORT 

London Scottish Business Club

We are seeking partners who share our ambition and wish to work with us to develop and grow this great and famous club, our global community, and the game of rugby union.

The business club provides members with regular opportunities to network and build relationships whilst enjoying first class rugby hospitality, access to exclusive events, and world-class speakers and insights.

London Scottish hosts a range of exclusive, high quality events through the year.  Events are designed to provide insights into the professional sporting environment at club and international levels in a convivial atmosphere that fosters engagement and networking.  Events include a rugby leadership workshop at The Lensbury Club during the Six Nations internationals, a private dinner with England coach Neal Hatley to review the RWC, and a corporate day in Perth with the Melrose 7’s squad, guest speakers and a choice of sporting activities

The London Scottish match day experience is at the core of our Business Club.  Enjoy a relaxed pre-match hospitality with guests and clients, alongside other like-minded business professionals. Our partner list now extends to over 150 different businesses and organisations all supporting our club but keen to meet new people and explore new opportunities. The diaspora in London is large in numbers and significant in influence, London Scottish is the perfect vehicle to pull these people together and our events are perfect for networking.

We recognize the need to tailor our Business Club offer to meet the specific needs and priorities for your organisation. Hence, we offer every member the opportunity to select items from our wider events programmed to tailor a package exactly to suit your needs, including:  pre-game hospitality hosted by a leading figure from the world of rugby union, or attend events such as the Legends Dinner, St Andrews Day Lunch and Burns Supper.

Business Club Members: Adept Corporate Services, West Coast Capital, Allied London, Carbon Financial, London Scottish House, Cashmaster, Badenoch & Co, Malcolm Group, Three Stills, Fenwick Elliot, Dynamic Edge, Jupiter Asset MGMT, 24Haymarket, FOSR, Gallowglass Securities, MM&D Agency, Glenalmond College

Platinum Members

Sir David Reid, Martin Gilbert, Michael Kirkwood, Greg Knight, Rod Lynch, Frank McKay, Malcolm Offord, Sir William Purves, Charles Richardson, Ian Smellie, Norman Sanson, Iain Woods, Ross Coull

Gold Members

Alexander Badenoch, Colin Grassie, Eric Herd, Roger Jenkins, Stephen Pearson, Lindsay Forbes, Roddy Caxton-Spencer

Silver Members

Keith Craig, Iain Mackay, Simon Borrows, Calum Bryce, Douglas Flint, Jamie Gibson, Gavin Kelly, Hugh Langmuir, Sir Moir Lockhead, Iain Murray, David Newlands, Colin Rutherford

Bronze Members

Marquis of Aberdeen, Ian Aitken, David Cheyne, Alastair Dickson, Joe Flaherty, Ian Galbreath, Chris Little, Kenny Logan, David Mackay, Sandy McIver, Jock Meikle, Donald Reid, Kevin Sneader, Alasdair Douglas, Gavin Lickley, Nairne Gray, Roddy Grant, Ralph Potter

Founder Members

David Barclay, Donald Brydon, Mhairi Buckley, John Bustin, Malcolm Currie,Malcolm Gillespie, Martin Goudie, David Guild, Keith Hayes, John Hewitt, John Kelly, Ross Luke, Christian Main, Bill McCosh, Paul McFarland, Gregor Michie, Andrew Moffat, Ken Morrison, Malcolm Murray, Jim Park, Ken Scobie, John Sievwright, David Venus, Tom Woods