Good game but disappointing result

IT WAS disappointing for Plymouth Albion to narrowly lose 25-24 at home to London Welsh last Saturday, but it was certainly a good game for any neutrals to watch.
With Albion going into the match having not lost at home this season and Welsh having not lost on their travels it was promised to be an interesting fixture – and so it proved.
Welsh stormed into a 19-0 lead but Albion slowly pegged them back and in the end the difference between the sides turned out to be a second half drop-goal by Aled Thomas.
Albion’s supporters have certainly had their moneys worth with the last two home games. They have seen 12 tries – nine for Albion, including six long range efforts from their backs.
But Graham Dawe’s side will have been very disappointed with their first half display in front of their own fans last Saturday and particularly their set piece game.
Welsh’s first try came after Albion lost a line-out, while Welsh’s penalty try came after Albion found themselves pushed back at a five-metre scrum on three occasions.
Normally, Albion are good at set pieces but they struggled in the first 40 minutes and it cost them.
Yet there were signs in the second period that this new-look Albion team could develop into a fine unit.
It can take time for teams to settle and this season it was always going to be more difficult because of the changes in the rules – which actually appear to have made the game less structured and led to more penalties and yellow cards.
Albion also had four of their players – internationals Justin Menah-Coker, David Palu, Jane du Toit and Sean-Michael Stephens – arriving later than expected for various reasons.
Mensah-Coker, Palu and du Toit’s visas took longer to arrive than expected. Mensah-Coker and Palu did arrival just in time for Albion’s only pre-season game, but they missed out on weeks of training, while du Toit was not able to join up with the team until a week into the season.
Sean-Michael Stephen’s arrival was delayed due to a back injury. He finally arrived two-and-a-half weeks into the season and has played the last two matches and looks like he could become a fine player for the club.
But it takes all players time to get used to National Division One rugby.
Albion had the likes of Dan Ward-Smith, Andy Perry, Will James, Graham Dawe, Ollie Kohn and Tom Barlow in their first season in Division One, but yet still finished ninth.
However, the following season the team finished third, despite having lost three of their first four games.
Doing well in Division One is about having a good run of games during the season.
With five points available for a win, a team can go from nearly the bottom to the top within a couple of months if they go on a run – just look at London Welsh last season. Welsh were looking like relegation favourites last November, but they turned it around in the second half of the season with 10 wins from 15 games and finished seventh.
It can also go the other way. A team at the top can suddenly drop down.
Two seasons ago Albion were second at the start of January, just a point of the top, but it all went wrong for them after controversially losing at Leeds.
Not only did they lose a game they should have won at Headingley, but then two of their players – Tom Arscott and Ed Barnes – were illegally approached to sign for another club and three props got injured. The result was that Albion ended up finishing sixth when they had been riding high at the top for so long.
Because of how quickly a team can rise or fall in Division One, it makes proposals to relegate five teams seem totally unfair.
A couple of bad injuries or a tapping up incident could see a well-established Division One club fall into the bottom five, while a club that has been hammered all season could be loaned a few players from a Premiership club in January and stay up - especially with the number of wins overriding points difference (maybe that needs to be looked at).
Five is too many teams to go down in a league of 16 and, as they say, goal posts should not be moved once a game has started.
The final decision on how many go down or come up this season is set to be made in November – well that is madness and totally unfair on everyone.
The RFU wants two professional leagues of 12 but is it a major deal if they have to wait a season or two longer to get want they want and get the teams they want as well?
Many clubs want the two up, two down to remain this season as that is what they thought was going to happen, whereas others want a quick solution – either five down and one up or four down none up.
Had everyone been aware of what was going to happen a year in advance then no one could really complain, but to decide once the season has started goes against everything English sport stands for.
Maybe a compromise of three down one up for two seasons maybe the best solution.
The RFU and FDR would want all the well-supported clubs with good grounds to stay in the division, but with five down there is no guarantee that could happen.
The current 11 best supported clubs in Division One are Exeter, Plymouth, Cornish Pirates, Leeds, Bedford, Coventry, Nottingham, Rotherham, Doncaster, London Welsh and Moseley, but will all those finish above Otley, Esher, Sedgley Park, Newbury and Manchester? And should it matter if you are not a ‘big’ club now.
In an ideal, world rugby organisers want the 24 biggest – in terms of fans and grounds – to form the two 12-team leagues. The other two clubs they probably have on their radar and who they would want to promoted over the next two seasons are Redruth and London Scottish, but you cannot manufacture sport.
Not so long ago, Worcester and Leeds were not big teams and no one would have imagined them in the top flight, while the likes Orrell and Wakefield were well established team who now sadly don’t even feature in the National Leagues.
But it is not just National Division One or Two these changes will affect it will be felt right down the pyramid.
Hopefully, someone will come to some sense and delay plans for one season – giving all clubs enough warning about whether they have more chance of getting relegation or less chance of getting promoted and so teams can plan their budgets accordingly.