With the south west continually proving to be one of the least populated regions, it will still come as a surprise to know that this year it will only be contested by 3 Devon teams.
The absence of Cardiff Storm, who have qualified for Nationals the last few years, and a lack of a Bristol showing, means it will be more of a glorified training session for the boys in green. It is unlikely that Devon 2 will cause any Fire-esque upsets in the club, especially not given Devon 1's strong showing at Tours 2 and 3 and increasing confidence against the bigger teams, so the odds are very much on for it to finish Devon 1, Devon 2, Devon 3 respectively.
What the lack of competition will cause, however, is some brain scratching for the seedings at Nationals. Last year Devon 1 went in seeded towards the bottom and after scalping a strong DED team on Sunday morning went on to finish in 8th position, way above the regional champions Cardiff. Accurately predicting which Devon team will show up in Southampton is typically very difficult, but Devon 1 have found some form this year that they've lacked previously and this will put them as one of the most dangerous of banana-skin teams come August bank holiday. That said, without a rival team at regionals it remains to be seen how seriously their contention is taken by the scheduling team for Nationals. (NB: SW1 is 8th and SW2 is 12th out of 16)
 |
| The dominant force in the SW. |
Prediction:
1. Devon 1
2. Devon 2
3. Devon 3
One region down, sadly not so hotly contested as others, more to come! DP @ tSG.
Cardiff Storm are listed as having registered for UKUNationals http://ukunationals.org/teams-entered
ReplyDeleteDid they not enter regionals at all?
Also, do you know what the regional bid situation is for all regions?
I will let James reply to the regionals entry question but regional allocation can be seen here http://ukunationals.org/open-format (just a few clicks away).
Delete