Premiership Predictions

Premiership North

West Coast Trojans vs. East Kilbride Pirates

The Premiership's only all-Scottish match up in 2013 sees Troon's Trojans welcome a Pirates side fresh from thrashing Coventry last weekend. The home side entered the season playing down talk of yet another play-off run, and their first two performances have gone a fair way to confirming their modesty. Last weekend's loss in Sheffield will have hurt more than they've let on.

East Kilbride are run-away favorites for both this game and the division in general, and on their showing in the West Midlands it's easy to see why. For all the "Dick Hunter" jokes, the Pirates have some serious ability on both sides of the football, and should have no problem defending their incredible record of  not losing to Scottish opposition since being tanked 54-8 by Fife 49ers in August 1996(!).

East Kilbride by four scores

Yorkshire Rams vs. Coventry Jets

An interesting one in West Yorkshire, with the Rams welcoming a Jets side that outclassed Nottingham in their first game before getting tonked by East Kilbride. Despite the shutout last week, their offence will always remain dangerous - particularly through the air - and the Rams will have to be on their 

guard this weekend.

Yorkshire's offence is yet to fire thus far, but if they can keep the Jets to a handful of scores they should be favorites. We probably over-estimated the Rams by putting them above Doncaster pre-season, but they're a solid Premiership team. We'd expect them to see off Coventry, but this will be close.

Yorkshire by ten

Doncaster Mustangs vs. Birmingham Bulls

Two teams that tasted Premiership football last season go head to head knowing that a win is required to keep up their respective challenges, even at this early stage. Doncaster started well with wins over Nottingham and Yorkshire, but know that they'll probably have to win eight games to make the play-offs 

this time around.

Birmingham on the other hand scraped a victory up on the west coast of Scotland in their only game so far, but lost twice to the Mustangs last season, including being shutout in their last trip to the Keepmoat. Expect Doncaster's quality to shine through in this one.

Doncaster by three scores

Premiership South

Bristol Aztecs vs. Berkshire Renegades

As mentioned in the power rankings, not much is known about Berkshire, they are the last remaining X Factor in this division, and who knows what we can expect from them. Three games in for the Bristol boys and we pretty much know what we can expect, much the same as last year, this for us means, they will be fighting for #3/#4 position in the Premiership South alongside the Olympians, and perhaps even the Cats. Could Berkshire shock the league with this win? Possibly, but given the little we know about them, it’s hard to give anything but an Aztecs win.

Aztecs by 28.

Peterborough Saxons vs. Cambridgeshire Cats 
Only two years ago these two teams were both in division one. With the Cats looking like possible contenders for the division, and with the Saxons looking somewhat troubled in their coaching staff, the tale of the two years couldn’t have been more different for the two teams. The rebranding of the Saxons with new Head Coach Will White and the re-emergence of them into division 2 last year gave the Saxons a new lease of life and they now find themselves in the Premiership with nothing to lose. 

The Cats never stood up to their championship potential and have had a couple of uneventful years. The Cats will be looking this weekend to remark old territory in this rivalry with an emphatic win, the Saxons will have been training hard for this encounter too.

The Cats seem to have found some form this year, helped in no small part by an influx of Americans as has been hashed over for the past couple of weeks. The Saxons look to be facing their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Cats.

Cats by 21.