Published: Wednesday, 20th January, 2010 12:00pm

Hopkins - Things are tougher now

by Sportsdesk

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Oli Jones is one of the three players back in contention for Bracknell

BRACKNELL RFC head coach Ken Hopkins admits three postponements on the bounce have made his side's promotion chase even tougher.

But he remains confident the Lily Hill Park boys are still well in the hunt for the place in the end of season play-offs. And he feels the squad will be stronger than ever for a big push in the second half of the campaign.

Last weekend's home fixture against Bishop's Stortford was the latest to fall foul of the weather. And Hopkins admits the backlog of games will prove an added challenge for his third-placed side.

He said: "We can't really do anything about it. We have lost three games now and if you look at the fixture list it means that we will now have a game every Saturday until April.

"It is a great pity because the odd week off at that stage of the season is very good.

"They are a chance to give the players a rest, recharge the batteries and recover from a few injuries. It is not ideal, but it will be similar to what we had to do from the start of September when we had 11 consecutive games.

"There were three games in our division last weekend, so we are very eager to get back to it ourselves.

"The pitches at the club are obviously not at their best this week, but we are confident we will be able to train outside twice this week and we expect to play on Saturday."

One of the matches that survived the weather last weekend saw runaway leaders Jersey take on Bracknell's biggest rivals for the play-off spot, second-placed Old Albanians.

Hosts Jersey ran out 19-12 victors - their 14th straight win since losing to Bracknell on the opening day of the season - but Albanians managed to hold on for a creditable losing bonus point.

Despite becoming the first side to leave the Channel Islands with any points this season, Hopkins believes the St Albans-based side may have missed a golden opportunity to get one over on Jersey.

And he has backed his players to be firing on all cylinders when Albanians travel to Bracknell on Saturday, February 6 in what will be a must-win match for the Lily Hill Park side.

He said: "It was a good time to play someone like Jersey. Everybody has had four weeks off and is probably a little rusty. They were vulnerable.

"Old Albanians have done very well there to get a bonus point, but it could have been worse for us.

"If they had won they would have opened up a big gap. But as it is they are six points ahead of us. We have a game in hand and they still have to travel to us. It is still all to play for.

"Old Albanians have recruited well, they have become very difficult to score against.

"We will certainly be keeping an eye on their results. We play them in three weeks so hopefully we will have two games to find our feet and go into that game in good form."

Before then Bracknell travel to struggling Portsmouth on Saturday, who they beat 56-21 in October. But despite that big win earlier in the season, Hopkins is not expecting things to be easy on the south coast.

He said: "It is away from home and I think we can discount what happened earlier in the season when the pitches were playing well.

"I don't think there will be too many teams at the moment going into games looking to get bonus point wins because in these conditions you need to play a different kind of rugby to win games.

"On Saturday we will be looking to go there and win, if we can get a bonus point it will an added bonus."

One benefit to the long lay-off is that Bracknell have had a chance to strengthen their squad for the promotion run-in. Explosive West Indian winger Kevin McKenzie has returned from the Caribbean and is in contention for a starting place on Saturday.

He has not played for the club since early November, but is still Bracknell's top try-scorer with nine this season.

Elsewhere centre Oliver Jones is also back in contention after some time away, while flanker Carl Cimpoias - who started 12 games for the club last season - is close to recovering from injury.

Hopkins said: "Kevin gives us an extra dimension. He is a lethal try-scoring threat.

"Oli Jones is back too - we may give him a few games in the seconds, but he is a very good addition to the squad.

"And hopefully Carl Cimpoias will be back soon. He has missed the whole season so far through injury, but he is another quality player."

* BROADMOOR Staff paid the price for the recent cold snap as they were knocked off the top of the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premier Division last Saturday.

The Crowthorne-based side saw their own fixture postponed for the third straight weekend.

But as they faced up to another rest weekend title-rivals Oxford managed to get their home game against Stow-on-the-Wold on and their 15-6 victory saw them leapfrog Moor into top spot.

In-form Phoenix also won against Gosford All Blacks to draw level with Broadmoor in second.

However, this weekend presents an ideal opportunity for Staff to bounce back into top spot. While Oxford are in cup action, Moor host Premier Division whipping boys Harwell.

The Oxfordshire-side have lost all 11 of their league games so far this season, shipping 466 points in the process.

And Staff ran out comprehensive 73-5 winners when they met in September.

Kick-off is 2.30pm.