2026 World Cup Preview – Cape Verde

June 4, 2026

The expansion of the World Cup Finals to 48 sides has resulted in 15 qualifiers whose football had not yet been covered by these diaries. Following on from the preview on Curacao, here is a report on Cape Verde, who have also qualified for the World Cup Finals for the first time in their history.

 

Cape Verde

The Cape Verde islands are an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, roughly 570 km off the coast of West Africa.

Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony until independence was achieved in 1975. The official language is Portuguese although Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken language.

The population at the 2021 census was just under 500,000, of which over half lived on the island of Santiago, which hosts Praia, the largest city in the country. Increasingly tourism is the main industry. 

It is estimated that the global diaspora exceeds the population of Cape Verde, and is spread all over the world. Indeed, Tavares, the R&B/Soul band who had a hit with “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel” in 1976, consisted of five Cape Verde-American brothers.

Although the official currency is the Cape Verdean Escudo, it is not transferrable, so most transactions are in Euros.

During the apartheid sanctions on South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s the airport on the island of Sal was used as a refuelling stop for South African Airways, who were not allowed to overfly countries in Africa.

Cape Verde Football League

The Cape Verdean Football Championship ( Campeonato Nacional ) was first played for in 1976 after independence the previous year. However, competitive football had been played under the Portuguese Empire, with the first local league being played in 1953.

The Championship is typically played between May and July and consists of 12 sides, featuring the champions of the nine inhabited islands ( Santo Antao, Sao Vicente, Sao Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista, Maio, Santiago, Fogo and Brava ), with Santiago and Santo Antao having two sides to represent both of their two footballing regions, plus the defending champions or another side from their island making up the numbers.

The sides are divided into three groups of four and play six matches. Each group winner plus the best runner-up then play two-legged semi-finals to determine the two sides to play the final, which is usually just one match.

CS Mindelense from Sao Vincente are the record title holders with 13 championships, followed by Sporting Clube de Praia from Santiago with 10 titles. The 2025 title was won by GD Palmeira de Santa Maria from the island of Sal, who won their second title by overcoming Boavista de Praia in a penalty shoot-out after a 0-0 draw.

The 2026 regular season is due to finish on June 13^th, and at the time of writing had two more rounds to complete, with Palmeira, Mindelense and Boavista currently heading their groups. The dates of the semi-finals are yet to be published, presumably for after Cape Verde have exited the World Cup !

Cape Verde are entitled to enter a side into the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup, but for financial reasons the last time a side competed was in 2009.

Cape Verde National Team

Although this is the first time Cape Verde had qualified for the World Cup, they had reached the Africa Cup Of Nations finals on four occasions, with the best performances being reaching the quarter-finals in 2013 and 2023. However, they failed to qualify for the 2025 AFCON finals.

Cape Verde came into the World Cup with a FIFA ranking of 67^th although they had been as high as 27^th in February 2014.

Their nickname is The Blue Sharks, and their home ground is the 15,000 capacity Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde in Praia, which has an artificial surface and a running track. The first choice kit is all blue

Cape Verde Coach

The coach is Pedro Leitao Brito, a former Cape Verde international centre-back who won 28 caps and is more commonly known as Bubista, which is the Cabo Verdean Creole name for the island of Boa Vista, which is where he comes from.

Cape Verde Squad

Twelve of the Cape Verde Squad were born on the islands, with the other fourteen players being drawn from the diaspora, with amazingly six being born in Rotterdam,. Additionally, three were born in France, three in Portugal, one in the USA and one in Ireland.

None of the squad currently play their club football on the islands, with Portugal being the most represented with 7 players, with three playing in Turkey and two each in Bulgaria, USA, Russia and Cyprus. Eleven of the squad are 30 years old or over.

The captain of Cape Verde is former Nottingham Forest, Lille, Kayserispor and Kocaelispor winger Ryan Mendes ( 97 caps ), who is now playing in the Turkish second level with Igdir. Mendes is not only the record cap holder for Cape Verde, but is also the record goal scorer with 22 goals.

Forward Nuno da Costa ( 8 caps ) had also played for Nottingham Forest and is now with Istanbul Basaksehir, having also played for Strasbourg, Moeskroen, Caen and Auxerre. Centre-back Ricardo Lopes ( 45 caps ), also known as Pico, was born in Ireland and plays for Shamrock Rovers. Left back Stopira ( 61 caps ) was name checked in these diaries in 2020 whilst playing in Hungary for Fehevar and now plays in Portugal for Torreense.

Centre-back Logan Costa ( 27 caps ) plays for Villareal, and striker Dailon Livramento ( 21 caps ) played last season on loan at Casa Pia from Hellas Verona, having started his career in the Netherlands with Roda JC Kerkrade and MVV.

Midfielders Deroy Duarte ( 30 caps ) and Laros Durate ( 13 caps ) are brothers and both played for Sparta Rotterdam as youngsters. Deroy is now playing in Bulgaria for Ludogorets, whilst Laros is now with Hungarian side Puskas Academy. Omonia Nicosia winger Willy Semedo ( 37 caps ) and Farense midfielder Yannick Semedo ( 10 caps ) don’t appear to be related !  

Veteran keeper Vozinha ( 86 caps ) now plays for Portuguese side Chaves after playing for Moldovan side Zimbru Chisinau, AEL Limassol and Slovak side Trencin, right-back Steven Moreira ( 19 caps ) plays for Colombus Crew after spells with Rennes, Lorient, and Toulouse, whilst defender Edison Borges, aka Diney, plays in the UAE for Al Bataeh after beginning his career in Portugal with Maritimo and Estoril.

Wing-back Joao Paulo ( 41 caps ) is with FCSB in Romania and had played for Sheriff Tiraspol and Otelul Galati, defensive midfielder Kevin Pina ( 31 caps ) was with Russian side Krasnodar, and midfielder Jamiro Monteiro ( 54 caps ) was now with Dutch side PEC Zwolle and numbered Cambuur, Heracles, Metz, Philadelphia Union, San Jose Earthquakes and Gaziantep on his CV.

The most valuable player according to Transfermrkt was Logan Costa at €18M, ahead of Trabzonspor defender Wagner Pina ( 13 caps ) at €11M 

The Path Towards Qualification

Cape Verde were drawn in Group D in the AFCON qualifiers and won 7 of their 10 matches to top the group and qualify automatically for the finals.

They started inauspiciously with a 0-0 draw at home to Angola, which was followed with a 2-0 win over lowly ranked Eswatini played in South Africa, before a calamitous 1-4 hammering in Cameroon. However, Cape Verde were to turn things around, starting with 1-0 home victories over Libya and Mauritius and the momentum continued with a 2-1 win in Angola, and a 2-0 victory against Mauritius.

A major step towards the finals was taken with a 1-0 revenge home win over Cameroon thanks to a solo goal by Livramento, but Cape Verde were on the verge of disaster when they trailed 1-3 in Libya with 15 minutes remaining, but two late goals grabbed a 3-3 draw. This left The Blue Sharks needing just to beat Eswatini to top the group, and a comfortable 3-0 triumph saw them heading to the USA.

Livramento was the top scorer in qualifying with 4 goals, followed by Diney and Monteiro with two a-piece.

Including friendlies, Cape Verde were unbeaten in all 11 games played in 2025 but in 2026 their two games in the FIFA Series played in New Zealand resulted in a 2-4 defeat to Chile and a 1-1 draw with Finland.

Their two World Cup warm-up games saw Cape Verde convincingly beat Serbia 3-0 in a game played in Lisbon, after which they were due to play Bermuda in East Hartford, Connecticut on June 6^th.

 

Possible Starting Line-Up

Vozinha – Moreira, Diney, Lopes, Joao Paulo – Mendes, Pina, Monteiro, Y Semedo, W Semedo - Livramento

Fixtures :

15^th June : vs Spain at 17.00 UK time in Atlanta  ( On ITV )

21^st June : vs Uruguay at 23.00 UK time in Miami ( On BBC )

27^th June : vs Saudi Arabia at 01.00 UK time in Houston ( On ITV )

2026 World Cup Preview – Curacao

June 3, 2026

The expansion of the World Cup Finals to 48 sides has resulted in 15 qualifiers whose football had not yet been covered by these diaries. Therefore, it was an opportunity to take a look at one or two countries, starting with Curacao !

 

Curacao

Along with Aruba, Sint Maarten and The Netherlands, the island of Curacao is a constituent member of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, whilst Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba are special municipalities of The Netherlands. Accordingly, the residents of Curacao have Dutch nationality and therefore also possess EU Citizenship, even though Curacao is not part of the EU. Curacao has its own Parliament, but defence and foreign affairs are handled by The Kingdom.

Curacao is situated in the South Caribbean Sea, around 65km north of the Venezuelan coast, and the population in the 2023 census was 155,826, making Curacao the smallest nation in terms of people to qualify for the World Cup Finals.

The capital is Willemstad, noted for its multi-coloured architecture along its waterfront, and the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, which allows pedestrians to walk between the Punda and Otrobanda districts of the town, and swings open to allow large ships access to and from the port.

Dutch, Papiamentu and English are the official languages on the island, but Spanish is also widely spoken.

Curacao’s most famous export is probably the orange flavoured Curacao liqueur, which is naturally colourless but can be dyed into several colours to add character to cocktails, although Blue Curacao is the most popular, and a staple component in Fatbear’s drinks cabinet !

Fatbear has enjoyed three holidays on Curacao, although the last of them was 20 years ago !

Curacao Football League

Competitive football was first played in Curacao in 1921 and until 2010 the top two sides played against sides from the other islands in the Netherlands Antilles to determine the regional champion. Following the break-up of the Dutch Antilles, the Prome Division was formed in 2014, and currently consists of 10 sides.

A regular 18 game is season is played between late October to early April. The top six sides move forward to the Kaya 6 and play 5 more matches, with the top 4 qualifying to the Kaya 4 and three more matches. The top two sides in the Kaya 4 then play a one match final to determine the overall champion. Matches are nearly all played at 3,000 capacity Stadion Rignaal 'Jean' Francisca, which is next door to the national stadium on the outskirts of Willemstad and has an artificial surface. Matches are currently live streamed on the FIFA+ website.

The Prome Divishon champions qualify for the second tier CFU Club Shield, and the 2024 edition was hosted by Curacao. Jong Holland got past St Lucia’s Bays FC with a 3-0 victory but were hammered 1-7 in the quarter finals by Jamaican side Arnott Gardens, who went on to win the competition. Jong Holland had previously reached the semi-finals in 2019 and 2022.

In 2025/26, CV Inter Willemstad beat RKSV Scherpenheuvel 1-0 in the final played at the National Stadium thanks to a near post header from a corner in the 12^th minute from Michaelangelo Beers, who no doubt had a few afterwards to celebrate !

Inter had finished 5^th in the regular season, third in the Kaya 6 and second in the Kaya 4 and had lost all four of the previous meetings with Scherpenheuvel ! Founded in 1939 by employees of KLM, it was Inter’s first championship

Curacao National Team

Until 2010, Curacao’s footballers played as part of a Netherlands Antilles side until Curacao became an entity in its own right following the dissolution of the Dutch Antilles. However, until recently, Curacao had hardly set the region alight, and came into the World Cup with a FIFA ranking of 82, although they had been as high as 68^th in July 2017.

Their nickname is The Blue Wave, and their home ground is the 10,000 capacity Ergilio Hato Stadium. Their first choice kit is all blue, with a change kit of all yellow.

Curacao Coach

The coach is veteran Dutchman Dick Advocaat ( Dick the Lawyer, but more often known as The Little General ) who at the age of 78 will become the oldest ever manager of a side at a World Cup. Advocaat had three times been coach of The Netherlands as well as having stints in charge of Belgium, Russia, Serbia, UAE, South Korea and Iraq, in addition to coaching PSV, Feyenoord, Rangers, Sunderland, Fenerbache, AZ and Sparta Rotterdam amongst others.

Advocaat was appointed in January 2024, prior to the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup but missed the crucial last game in Jamaica due to the illness of his daughter and subsequently resigned afterwards due to her illness. Fred Rutten was appointed as his successor but resigned after just three months in the job due to reports of disagreements with the senior players, and Advocaat returned to take the side to the Finals.

Curacao Squad

Only one member of the 26 man squad was actually born on the Island, Sheffield United winger Tahith Chong ( 4 caps ), who started his career at Manchester United, before moving on to Birmingham City and Luton. None of the squad play their club football in Curacao.

The rest of the squad were all born in the Netherlands, but as Dutch citizens have not suffered the fate of their countrymen who opted to play for Suriname or Indonesia, and then discovered that the Netherlands does not allow dual citizenship, and so lost their Dutch nationality. They were considered to be foreign nationals, and were prevented from playing for their clubs in The Netherlands until work permits were obtained !

The captain of Curacao is former Aston Villa, Groningen, Reading Cardiff City and Watford midfielder Leandro Bacuna ( 70 caps and 16 goals ) who is now playing in the second tier in Turkey for Igdir FK. Younger brother Juninho Bacuna ( 48 caps, 13 goals ) was currently on loan with Volendam, having previously played for Groningen, Huddersfield, Rangers and Birmingham City.

Other players who would be familiar to fans in the UK include ex-Brighton and Hove Albion and PSV Eindhoven forward Jurgen Locadia ( 12 caps ), who is now playing alongside Lionel Messi for Miami in the MSL, together with ex-Vitesse keeper Eloy Room ( 70 caps ). Ex-Ajax midfielder Ar’jany Martha ( 7 caps ) now plays for Rotherham United.

Forward Gervane Kasteneer ( 27 caps ) was the highest scorer in the qualifying campaign with 4 goals and now plays for Malaysian side Terangganu but numbered Coventry City, Hearts, Kaiserslautern and NAC Breda amongst his former clubs. Striker Kenji Gorre ( 33 caps ) is the son of ex-Ajax, Huddersfield, and Barnsley midfielder and Curacao assistant coach Dean Gorre, and having grown up in England was qualified to play for the Three Lions. Starting his career at Swansea City, he also played for Northampton Town before moving on to Nacional and Boavista in Portugal, and is now playing for Maccabi Haifa in Israel.

Striker Sontje Hansen ( 3 caps ) plays for Middlesborough, having started at Ajax and NEC Nijmegen, whilst right-back Shurandy Sambo ( 7 caps ) is a Burnley player but spent last season on loan with Sparta Rotterdam. Full-back Joshua Brenet ( 15 caps ) had a short spell with Livingston after a long career with PSV and Vitesse, and now plays for Turkish side Kayserispor.

Other players with clubs outside of The Netherlands were Beveren forward Jearl Margaritha (  21 caps ), forward Jeremy Antonisse ( 25 caps ) with Greek Super League side Kifisia, FC Zurich midfielder Livano Comenencia ( 16 caps ), and centre-back Jurien Gaari ( 58 caps ) was now with Saudi side Abha having played many seasons for RKC Waalwijk.

Centre-back Armando Obispo ( 4 caps ) was a regular in PSV side that won this season’s Eredivisie, right-back Sherel Floranus ( 24 caps ) was with PEC Zwolle having previously played for Sparta Rotterdam, Heerenveen and Turkish side Antalyaspor, and defender Roshan Van Eijma ( 25 caps ) plays for RKC Waalwijk.

Leandro Bacuna and Room were joint record cap holders, just ahead of ex-Southampton, Stoke, Everton and Feyenoord centre-back Cuco Martina ( 67 caps ) who is now playing his club football in Curacao but was not selected for the squad.

The Path Towards Qualification

Curacao commenced their campaign in the CONCACAF 2^nd Round of Qualification where they won all four of their matches in Group C. They started with a 4-1 home win over Barbados, and followed that with a 2-0 victory in Aruba, a 4-0 win at home to St Lucia and 5-1 victory over Haiti, in a game played in Aruba due to the political troubles in Haiti.

The third qualifying round saw Curacao emerge unbeaten from their home and away fixtures against Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Bermuda to top the group and qualify for the finals. The first match was a 0-0 draw in Trinidad, after which home wins over Bermuda ( 3-2 ) and Jamaica ( 2-0 ) were recorded. A capacity home crowd of 10,000 then turned up to witness a second 0-0 draw with Trinidad, before a 7-0 victory in Bermuda took Curacao to the brink of qualification.

Curacao held their nerve in their final game in front of a crowd of 35,000 in Kingston, Jamaica to claim a 0-0 draw to achieve a historic qualification.

However, things had gone off the boil since qualification, losing two friendlies under Rutten played in March in Sydney, going down 1-2 to China and 1-5 to Australia.

Following the return of Advocaat, a World Cup warm up was played in Scotland, which Curacao were controlling after Chong had given them the lead, but a stupid red card for Locadia 7 minutes before the interval changed the balance of the game, and Scotland eased to a comfortable 4-1 victory against the 10 men. It is unusual for red cards to be show in warm-up friendlies, and perhaps the referee could have spoken with Advocaat recommending Locadia was immediately substituted in order for both sides to equally benefit from the warm-up ?

 

Curacao’s home send-off was to be a match against neighbours Aruba in Willemstad on June 6^th.

Possible Starting Line-Up

Room - Sambo, Gaari, Van Eijma, Floranus, Obispo – J.Bacuna, Comenencia, L. Bacuna – Chong, Locadia

Fixtures :

14^th June : vs Germany at 18.00 UK time in Houston  ( On ITV )

21^st June : vs Ecuador at 01.00 UK time in Kansas City ( On BBC )

25^th June : vs Ivory Coast at 21.00 UK time in Philadelphia ( On BBC )

Chinnor 29-14 Richmond ( att : 2,152 ) - 2025/26 English Champ

May 9, 2026

Today saw the final round of fixtures in the Champ regular season as Chinnor hosted Richmond.

Two weeks ago, these diaries reported on Chinnor’s comfortable 32-22 victory over Worcester Warriors. Last Saturday, two late tries saw them pick up two bonus points in a 28-30 loss at Bedford Blues which kept them in 5^th place in the table, and needing just one point from today’s game to secure a place in the end of season play-offs. Any victory would see Chinnor finish in 5^th place and a trip to either Coventry or Worcester awaited in the play-off quarter-final.

Richmond This Season

Richmond came into today’s game in 12^th place with a 7-1-17 record, but were a poor 2-1-9 away from the Athletic Ground.

Having won promotion from National League One last season, Richmond begin the season with a heartening 18-13 home win over Chinnor in a game reported on by Fatbear. However, since then the only wins had been a double over winless Cambridge ( H 38-22, A 54-5 ), home wins against Hartpury University ( 17-12 ), Caldy ( 31-12 ) and Nottingham ( 17-15 ), then last week Richmond beat tenants London Scottish 24-17 in what was officially an away game. The draw was a notable 7-7 effort at Hartpury.

Richmond already knew that they would have to play London Scottish in the relegation play-off, where they would be the “home” side. Victory would see them playing in the Championship next season, but defeat would mean facing the winner of the National League One promotion play-off between Blackheath and Plymouth Albion at the RAG.

Richmond’s average home attendance this season was 1,079, with 1,950 attending the derby with London Scottish but only 700 watched their game against Coventry.

Previous Meetings

Prior to this season’s match, the two sides had last met in 2023/24, when Chinnor won both encounters on their way to winning National League One. Fatbear covered both games, with Chinnor winning 55-26 at home and 41-16 at the RAG.

However, these were the only occasions when Chinnor had tasted victory over Richmond, having lost in the four earlier meetings. In Chinnor’s first ever season at the 4^th level of English rugby in 2008/09, they lost 21-35 at home and 21-23 at the Athletic Ground, then in the aborted 2019/20 season, Richmond won 26-14 at home, and in a game featured in these diaries, they were victorious 21-5.

Matchday Information

The journey from Richmond to Thame is 46 miles and should normally take around an hour via the M4, M25 and M40.

Adult tickets purchased online were £16 and £20 at the gate, and an online programme had been prepared in advance of today’s game.

The usual food vendors for burgers, pizzas, crepes and coffee were in place, and a pint of XT4 was £5.18 with the member’s 10% discount.

With an eye very much on next weekend’s relegation play-off, Richmond made 15 changes to their starting XV that beat London Scottish last weekend, although five of today’s starters were substitutes last week. Furthermore, six of the side started the game against Chinnor back in October, back-row forwards Jared Cardew and Miles Wakeling, scrum-half Alex Schwarz, wing Josh Adams, centre Ronnie du Randt and full-back Greg Kitson. Harlequin fly-half Connor Slevin, who made 16 appearances for Chinnor last season and one this season, was also in the Richmond side

Chinnor made three changes to the side that narrowly lost at Bedford.  Luke Carter and Callum Pascoe swopped at scrum-half, Conor Brockschmidt replaced Willie Ryan at lock and Oscar Yandall was to make his first appearance of the season, coming in for Joe Brock at full-back.

It was cloudy with patches of blue sky at the 15.00 kick-off with a solitary red kite on patrol above the ground. The temperature was 20 degrees and the infamous Chinnor breeze was at its most benign, making it very pleasant conditions for watching rugby.

Richmond were playing in their traditional yellow, red and black hoops with black shorts whilst Chinnor were in their usual home kit of black and white.

Match Report

Chinnor booked their place in the play-offs but they were made to work hard by a much changed Richmond XV. 'Mond led 14-7 at the interval and were good value for their lead, with Kitson, Dardis and Slevin all looking lively with ball in hand and Richmond were winning their set-pieces. Chinnor's play was error-strewn, all too often looking for a flamboyant pass than keeping the ball in hand.

However, Chinnor scored early in the second period to bring the score to 12-14, and the introduction of Rukhadze, Walker and Hardwick to the front row saw Chinnor take control in the scrums and rucks, and Campbell started to win both Chinnor and Richmond line-outs. 

Walker in particular was inspired, scoring the third try from a rolling maul to put Chinnor's noses in front, and then with a penalty advantage his chip ahead caused chaos in the Mond defence, leading to Carter's crossfield kick for Goss to catch and run over in the corner to take the score to 22-14. A 5th try 5 minutes from the end sealed the 29-14 victory.

Score Timeline

Richmond were first on the scoreboard when the parting of the red sea enabled lock Archie Winchfield-Beale to pick up at the base of a ruck and stroll under the posts for a try on his first-team debut for Richmond. Slevin added the extras. 0-7 after 9 minutes.

Two minutes later Richmond prop James Litchfield was shown a yellow card for a high tackle, or as a wag next to me said, his name should be “leave field” !

With a player advantage, Chinnor were camped in the Richmond 22, and eventually the pressure told with flanker Will Cave barging his way over the try-line. Fly-half Nathan Chamberlain slotted over the conversion to level the scores at 7-7 after 19 minutes.

Richmond took advantage of a couple penalties to take play deep inside the Chinnor 22, and peeling off from a line-out rolling maul, Wakeling dived over and Slevin’s conversion gave Richmond a 14-7 lead with 25 minutes played.

Although Chinnor dominated play for the rest of the first half, they were unable to make any inroads past a resolute Richmond defence, so the visitors headed to the dressing rooms with a 14-7 lead.

Chinnor’s front row changes early into the second half had an almost immediate impact as they pressed the Richmond line, but the defence was drawn in, and a long pass gave wing Keiran Goss an easy score in the corner. With regular kicker Chamberlain having left the field through injury, the ball was thrown to replacement scrum-half Pascoe, whose attempted conversion sailed narrowly wide. The score was now 12-14 after 47 minutes.

With Chinnor still needing one point to be certain of making the play-offs, the home were starting to get restless, but after Richmond were pinged for not rolling away at a ruck, the penalty was kicked to 5 metres. Line-out ball was secured and with several backs joining in the rolling maul, Walker crashed over the whitewash to give Chinnor the lead. Pascoe’s attempted conversion again drifted wide from close to the touchline, but Chinnor now had a 17-14 lead with 64 minutes on the clock.

Chinnor were now rampant and with a penalty advantage Walker’s chip ahead caused chaos in the Mond defence, and when Chinnor regained possession, Carter's cross-field kick found Goss on his opposite wing to catch and run over in the corner. Yandall took over kicking duties but his effort from close to the touchline also drifted narrowly wide, but Chinnor now led 22-14 after 69 minutes.

The scoring was wrapped up when another Richmond infringement resulted in the penalty being kicked deep into the Mond 22, and after several drives close to the line, Rukhadze dived over close to the posts, and Yandall added the extras. The score became 29-14 with 73 minutes played.

In the closing stages Richmond threw the ball around seeking to make a breakthrough, but the Chinnor defence held firm, to secure the five-point victory.

Chinnor now travel to Worcester in the play-off quarter-final. I don't know if it is true, but I was told that the gate receipts in the play-offs are shared, so Chinnor would earn a tidy sum from a 9,500 sell-out at Sixways !

Richmond have their relegation play-off next week against London Scottish, whilst Hartpury’s 30-21 victory over Cornish Pirates gave them a trip to Coventry in the over play-off quarter-final.