Journo's Log - Date 12th March

As warned in the 'About Me' section, I'm often sent to cover the home matches of Bedford Rugby Club. This is the case this weekend where I'll be reporting on the Blues' match against Rotherham at Goldington Road.

This weekend sees the last set of fixtures of the regular campaign in the inaugural season of the RFU Championship. What happens after this makes the SPL split look perfectly reasonable. Basically, the top eight teams will be playing off for promotion to the Premiership. They'll be split into two groups and the top two in each will progress to the semi-finals with the winners facing each other in a two-legged promotion final to played at each other's grounds. It'll be live on Sky if anyone's interested!

The snag is that only three of the sides currently in the top eight play in grounds that are good enough for the Premiership. Two of those share their stadiums with football clubs - Bristol share the Memorial Stadium with Bristol Rovers and Nottingham rent Meadow Lane from Notts County. The other side, Exeter, play their rugby in an impressive if slightly soulless ground in the middle of nowhere at Sandy Park.

If you think that's a bit stupid, the bottom four will be put in a group of their own, where they'll play each other home and away. The bottom side at the end of all this will be relegated. What really is ridiculous is that two of the teams - Birmingham & Solihull and Coventry - have both narrowly avoided liquidation this season yet they will not take any king of points penalty into this stage.

Bedford are placed 4th in the Championship so their place in the promotion play-offs is secure. Rotherham are 10th but are just a few points behind Plymouth Albion in 8th so still have a lot to play for. With Plymouth facing Exeter and Moseley, the other contenders, facing Bristol the Yorkshire side have every chance of sneaking into the top eight. They'll be looking upon their former Ireland centre Kevin Maggs (70 caps) and promising scrum-half Jonny West for inspiration against a Bedford side who must be drooling at the prospect of playing in dryer conditions, where their attacking game has proved lethal in recent years. These two teams have produced some crackers in the past and this could be another in the making.