American football: Highland Wildcats ready to challenge for Britbowl
Highland Wildcats face a rematch of last year’s Britbowl final this weekend – but head coach Ben Senior is confident they are better placed to get a positive result this time around.
In 2022 the Wildcats went head-to-head with the Rushmoor Knights with the British title on the line, and it was the English side who prevailed.
In 2023, it will be a semi final clash, with the winner going on to face either Manchester of another of the Wildcats’ 2022 opponents – Nuneaton.
Senior believes it truly is the best four teams in the country going to Loughborough for finals day, and he says the Wildcats are poised to go all the way.
“It’s a bit of a mouth-watering match for the semi final, where we have the chance to get a bit of revenge,” Senior explained.
“We faced Rushmoor in last year’s final and came up short, but that was the third game we played that day.
“This year we are just as strong if not stronger and we’ll be playing them straight away. It will be an absolute stormer of a game, and I think we’ve got a good chance to get a bit of revenge for last year.
“After that, Manchester play Nuneaton. We beat Nuneaton last year in the semi finals, but from what I gather they have strengthened this year.
“I don’t know much about Manchester, but they were chasing us all year in terms of points scored, so they have a volatile offence. That would be another exciting game.
“The way they have laid out the play-offs this year really has set the stage for four of the very best teams in the country to be competing against each other, so it’s going to be really exciting.”
It has been a new-look play-offs system, broken up into two sets of two matches rather than the three games in one day that previous years put teams through to lift the trophy.
Senior believes it has been a positive change, and should allow for a better quality of match in the eventual championship match.
“Aside from the length of the trips, and the costs associated with that, I think it’s a lot better,” Senior reasoned.
“Player safety has to be your number one priority at all times, and the old format with three games was a lot to put on these kids.
“It’s a physically demanding, collision sport that requires you to work really hard at all times.
“By the time you get to game three at any tournament, guys are starting to flag and there is a safety issue there, so only having two games is much better.
“You would usually find that in the third game of any tournament things can get a little sloppy as people get more tired, so this makes for two very explosive games.”