Windsor RFC coach Jack Pattinson hopes Royals can leapfrog rivals with victory over Sherborne

Jack Pattinson was left cursing the weather on Saturday as Windsor’s game with Sherborne had to be postponed because Storm Dennis had left the pitch waterlogged.

The Royals had been looking to build on their nail-biting 10-7 win over Chippenham at Home Park on Saturday, but the weather gods weren’t on their side. Fortunately every cloud has a silver lining and for Windsor it’s that results at the weekend went their way, leaving them within sniping distance of 10th placed Beaconsfield, who they’ve been chasing down for some time. They’re also just a handful of points behind ninth placed Old Patesians, who they comfortably beat away from home only a few weeks ago.

They will leapfrog Beaconsfield if they win at Sherborne – or at least pick up losing bonus points – in the rearranged game this Saturday.

“There was nothing we could do,” said Pattinson.

“We’ll just have to adapt. There will be players away because we get so few spare weekends in the season. If we get a free schedule a lot of players book time away so it’s going to present a challenge. There will be one or two changes but most of the boys have been able to rearrange stuff.”

Pattinson won’t be on the sidelines at Sherborne as he’ll be in South Africa celebrating a friend’s wedding, but he admitted he’ll be religiously checking for updates and is confident the side can give him double cause for celebration this weekend. He added: “It’s just one of those things. You try to control everything as a coach but you can’t control the weather. The wedding is on Saturday and I’ll be checking my phone every few minutes and won’t be able to relax until I know the full-time score.”