Another winning start

SO, Albion managed to keep up their impressive opening day record by edging out Coventry at Brickfields today.
It is the ninth season running Albion have won their first fixture of the new term
Their last opening day defeat came at the start of the 1999-00 campaign when the club were in National League Division Three South.
That day Albion lost 27-9 away at Norwich in Graham Dawe's first match in charge.
Dawe, who was celebrating his 40th birthday at Norwich, was one of four summer arrivals to start that match, alongside Alan Paver, Tom Barlow and Chris Atkinson.
Today, Albion gave starts to six summer signings - Tom Jarvis, Justin Mensah-Coker, Greg Nicholls, Ryan Hopkins, Arthur Brenton and Danny Thomas - although two of those - Hopkins and Thomas - had played for the club previously.
The most new faces Albion have started with on the opening day under Dawe is seven - and that was last season against Esher.
In 2000-01 three new players started the first game, in 2001-02 it was four, in 2002-03 it was six, 2003-04 it was five, 2004-05 it was six and in 2005-06 and 2006-07 it was four.
Most National Division One clubs change their squad considerably during the summer and it can sometimes take teams a few weeks to really find their form.
A couple of years ago Leeds lost at home to London Welsh on the opening day, but then went on to win the title.
Although Albion did not set the world alight today against Coventry they will be just happy with the win against a team that did the double over them last season
There were certainly a number of positives.

New scrum-half Greg Nicholls looked very sharp, as did winger Liam Gibson, who came agonisingly close to scoring a stunning try. Martin Rice looked like he had never been away, despite spending nearly 18 months on the sidelines with two career-threatening injuries, and Mike Denbee looks like he is determined to continue where he left off last season.
Albion certainly could have had more than the one try they did score. As well as Gibson's effort, Albion came close of a couple of other occasions, only for the final pass to go astray in Coventry's 22.
But next week, Albion's new-look team will face a real test of their potential when they travel to Meadow Lane to take on Nottingham, who finished third last season.
That game will be particularly special for prop Hopkins, who scored Albion's only try today, as he has spent the last two years at Nottingham before returning to Devon in May.

Albion return to Brickfields

Rugby returns to Brickfields on Wednesday when a new-look Albion kick-off their pre-season programme with a game against Sidmouth.

It has been quite a while since Albion played Sidmouth, however, at one time it was a regular fixture on the rugby calendar.

Wednesday's game will see a popular former Plymouth player return to the club.

Winger and current Sidmouth coach Andy Matchett enjoyed four seasons at Albion and helped the club to two successive promotions.

Matchett (pictured) joined Albion in the summer of 2000 from Sidmouth after impressing for Devon in the County Championship.


He was one of a number of that successful Devon team, which reached the 2000 final, who ended up joining Albion .

And like Jason Hart and Danny Thomas, Matchett had no trouble making the step up from regional rugby to the National Leagues..

In his first season at the club he started 24 of Albion 's 26 league games and made three cup appearances. He scored 14 tries that season as Albion won the Division Three South title.

And the following campaign in National League Division Two he was one of four players who started every league match for the club, along with Dan Ward-Smith, Tom Barlow and Danny Thomas. Graham Dawe, Wayne Reed and Will James missed just one league game that term.

Having those seven available week in week out was a major boost to Albion, who again won promtion that season.

Although Matchett had two seasons where he didn't pick up any injuries once Albion were in Division One he started picking them up.

In Albion's first season in rugby's second tier he made 20 league and cup starts and four replacement appearances and scored five tries, but he was to pick up an elbow injury that ruled him out for nearly a year.

Eventually in 2004 Matchett moved on to Launceston, where he enjoyed some more success before returning to Sidmouth. He has also been seen playing rugby league in the summer.

It is a big week for Matchett. As not only does he have a big match against his former club, but he is also getting married.

Matchett would probably like his current team to prove him with the perfect wedding present, but Albion 's new-look squad will not want to lose to a non-National League side.

Wednesday will offer Albion 's supporters the first look at some of the club's summer signings.

Although not all are likely to play there is bound to be a few.

Those who don't are likely to feature in Albion 's other pre-season matches against Redruth this weekend and Neath and Mounts Bay next weekend.

Rugby: An Olympic sport?

IT IS the big kick-off on Friday.

No, not for the rugby season, but for the 2008 Olympic Games.

You are probably wondering what the Olympic Games has to do with a column about Albion and rugby, but how many of you are aware of Albion's Olympic links?

Many people have probably heard the story about when the Cornwall team represented Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics and included five players from either Albion or Plymouth, but Albion also played a big role the last time rugby was involved in the greatest sports show on earth.

The last time rugby was an Olympic sport was in 1924 when the Games were held in Paris .

Great Britain did not send a team and the gold medal was won by the USA who beat France in the final.

But what, you are probably wondering, has a rugby match between America and France got to do with Albion ?

Well, first of all, the American team, which was actually a side from Stamford University in California , warmed up for the Olympics by playing Albion .

They came over to England and played three matches - against Albion , Blackheath and Harlequins.

The Yankies beat Albion and Blackheath, but slipped to defeat against Harlequins.

Yet, even more interesting, was the fact that an Albion stalwart took part in the 1924 Olympic final.

Fred Jeffery refereed that last Olympic rugby game. Jeffrey had previously been Albion 's honour secretary for years and was also the former secretary of Devon RFU.

There have been calls to reinstate rugby into the Olympic programme.

A number of countries have pushed for rugby sevens to be included, but it does not look like it is going to happen. For a new sport to be included in the Olympics a current one has to drop out. There is a lot of lobbying that has been done to persuade the IOC to ditch one sport in favour of another.

And just how many countries would want rugby in the Olympics? And how many unions would support it?

There is already conflict between English Premiership clubs and the RFU over releasing players for internationals. How many clubs would be willing to release their players for a sevens tournament, whether it is the Olympics or not?

Rugby sevens has been part of the Commonwealth Games for a number of years, but you don't see the world's best players taking part in it. Just like you don't see the biggest stars on the regular sevens circuit. It is used more for developing players.

Albion, though, were represented at the 2002 Commonwealth Games when Keni Fisilau competed for Tonga .

Justin Mensah-Coker, who is expected at Albion in the near future, has also been a Commonwealth Games competitor, having represented Canada in 2006.

Last season Albion had Liam Gibson selected for the England Sevens squad and Mike Denbee for England Students and England Counties .

It will be interesting to see if the club have anymore players selected for representative rugby this coming season.

It is a double-edged sword for clubs like Albion . It is nice to see the club's name on the international stage, but no team wants to be without their best players for any length of time, especially if they are pushing for promotion. And often players don't want to give up their place in their club team.

Mind you apart from the sevens, where they have been forced to because top flight clubs don’t want to release first team players, England hardly look outside the Premiership.

It was quite interesting that for all that Dan Ward-Smith did in his six years at Albion , England never took a punt on him and called him into the Saxons side (or A squad as it was formerly know - and B squad before that). Yet after just over three months of Premiership rugby at Bristol he was called up. Surely he did not become that much a better player in that short a time. And it was a similar story with Shaun Perry.

When you consider how many of the England team in the last couple of years have come from National Division One, it does make you wonder why England don't at least call more into their squads to at least train with them.

It is actually a shame that the National Divisions XV was stopped.

I think most Division One followers could come up with a very impressive side made up of players from outside the Premiership who could give any touring side a dame good workout.

Mind you it would be a bit embarrassing for the RFU and the Premiership clubs if a National Divisions XV did better against a touring country than England did!

Could you image the fall-out from that. Maybe that's the reason why it doesn't happen.

Yet just think what a crowd you could pull in if you had a touring side playing in Plymouth and featuring Albion players.

It would be like the old times again when the likes of New Zealand , South Africa and Austria would play the South West.

Older rugby fans may remember blockbusters crowd packing into places like Home Park , The Rectory and Camborne to see touring sides.

Home Park was packed out in 1951 when a team from Devon, Cornwall , Somerset and Dorset played the Springboks (see picture).


And it hardly seems fair that the British Lions will go over to New Zealand and play a host of NPC sides all around both islands as warm-ups for their Tests, but when the All Blacks come over here they now only seem to play the Home nations at Twickenham, Millenium Stadium or Murrayfield.

I bet the All Blacks would love to play a game again in Devon, which is where it all really began for them in 1905, or in Cornwall .

And if the RFU did not want a National Divisions XV, why not a South West of England team, featuring all players born or brought up from Bristol down? Now that could be a good side. How many people would find that game more interesting than one of these predictable Autumn internationals?

But you would make you South West team? There's plenty to choose from, including a host of internationals.