Nothing decided as yet with respect to the male and female titles, both will go down to the final games.
Pingvin put up a much better display against Exiles than three weeks ago and may or may not have won a narrow victory at home (see below). I´ll leave it to others who were there to give a more detailed play by play account. Exiles dominated initially, leading 3 – 13, but Pingvin fought back with two tries to lead 15 – 13. Ian Gowland put over another penalty to make it 15 – 16 when the final whistle went and it looked like a narrow Exiles victory. But then an assistant referee rushed onto the field to report a previous offense. The referee reopened the game and Pingvin slotted an easy penalty to reverse the result. Something for all involved to look at the small print of the laws. The Swedish rugby convenor felt that when the final whistle is blown the game is over but no doubt this will shortly be clarified. As it turned out Exiles were short of a couple of key players, but Pingvin were also missing a few regulars. It will be all to play for in a couple of weeks at Skarpnäck. Since 2003 Pingvin have played aroung 25 games in Stockholm and have only won one, by one point. But what are statistics worth when the starting whistle blows?
After Enköping´s fine display in the semis against Pingvin and Göteborg´s more pedestrian showing against Exiles it wasn´t hard to predict that Enköping would comfortably retain their third place in the Championship. But, skenet bedrar, as they say in Swedish. Göteborg seem to have dominated and ran out easy winners by 39 – 21. Both teams play differently home and away and there is certainly a possibility that Enköping can catch up the deficit in the return, but it won´t be easy.
Meanwhile, in the final qualifying to Allsvenskan, Troján won easily in their home-game against Södertälje and seem likely to claim a place if in fact they choose to take it.
On the Ladies´ side, Vänersborg continued their idiotic reporting methods by recording a 0 – 0 score against Exiles. This was corrected to 20 – 5 to Exiles, but with the front fives once again reported as scoring all the tries. Perhaps something for TK to take a look at. This result means league victory for Exiles in the minileague, irrespective of the outcome of their final game against West Göta. It is also clear now that Exiles will be at home to Enköping in the one-off semi, while Pingvin will face Vänersborg in the other. The winner of their encounter in Vänersborg in a couple of weeks will determine who gets home advantage in that semi.