BUAFL Week 10 Predictions: TVC

Our BUAFL predictions for week 10's TVC fixtures.

Portsmouth Destroyers @ Reading Knights 
Clash of the purple teams this week! Reading were always the original purple team, with chants of ‘YOU WEAR PURPLE! YOU WEAR PURPLE!’ echoing from the opponents sideline. Who would have thought that moving to purple would be an improvement on your uniform, but that was certainly the case when Portsmouth moved away from those hideous yellow uniforms. Portsmouth are still yet to play a game since their upset loss to the Redhawks. I’m sure they have been training hard with the memory of that loss still fresh in their heads.

The purple Knights are still yet to play a game since Christmas. I hope for the Knights sake they have been practicing hard, because I can imagine the Destroyers will be looking to do just that, destroy. I’m sure Coach Hewitt will be placing emphasis on execution of your job, and making sure people focus on the game in hand.

Reading did hand out an ass whooping to Solent in the first week of the season, but in my eyes the Hawks stand a completely different animal this side of Christmas, and a comparable performance from the team that faced Reading to the team who faced Portsmouth is a chalk and cheese esque comparison. I expect Portsmouth to be wanting to prove something to themselves, and won’t let the Knights get a look in.
Portsmouth by 3TDs

Brunel Burners @ Imperial Immortals
Imperial are fresh off a defeat to the Stags this past week. While putting a 1 in the L column was perhaps not what they were hoping for, they can be thankful that they were one of the few teams who got to play in the past two weeks. This puts them at an advantage with Brunel’s last two games being cancelled.

Even though they appear to have put all the drama of last year behind them, Brunel took a worse beating from the Stags than the Immortals and this was pre-christmas. So on this information I invisage an Imperial win.
Imperial by 2 TDs

BNU Buccaneers @ Solent Redhawks 
The Redhawks must still be flying high from beating the Destroyers, although the attitude of being Championship beaters can have a nasty sting in the tail when reality comes back down to earth. BNU can be happy at steam rolling over Royal Holloway, their offence is obviously effective.

Solents defence have shown they can stop offences if they want to, although I would venture to say that BNUs offence is possibly more potent than Portsmouth’s. I think the Redhawks will get scored on, and their defence will really need to step up if they want to stop BNU. On the other side of the ball the Redhawks must out score the Bucs which I personally don’t think they will be able to do.
BNU 35 – 14 Redhawks

Surrey Stingers @ Southampton Stags
The Stags saw off perennial playoff contenders Imperial this past week, maintaining a shut out. While perhaps not their best offensive performance, I’m sure the wrinkles will be ironed out this week by TVC whipping boys the Stingers.

The Stags will look to the air to improve their passing game ahead of the upcoming Portsmouth match, and I have no doubt they will be able to put large numbers of points on the board. I think more importantly for the Stags defence, they will need to maintain a shutout to keep the momentum rolling into the upcoming games. Expect to see backups getting blooded in this game, and early on at that.
Southampton by 50+