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.
Monday, 29 September 2008
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Away day blues
Saturday, November 17, 2007 - remember the day?
Well that was the date of Albion's last league away win.
It came against Moseley at Billesley Common with Albion winning 29-10.
Albion have claimed cup away wins at Henley, Pertemps Bees and Rotherham in 2008, but they have not been able to break their duck in the league. The closest they came was a draw 17-17 at the Cornish Pirates in April.
When Graham Dawe first arrived at Albion the club's poor away record was one of the things he put right.
In the previous two seasons before Dawe arrived at Beacon Park, Albion could hardly buy a win on their travels - although they did pull one out of the bag in their final match of the 1998-99 season at Weston-super-Mare to maintain their National League status.
But Albion's travel sickness appears to have returned in the last 12 months.
It is interesting to note that while Albion cannot buy a win away from home, footballing neighbours Argyle have the opposite problem - they are picking up points on the road but not at Home Park.
Albion went to Newbury last Saturday optimistic that they could put an end to their disappointing away form.
They went into the match on the back of a six-try win over Manchester, while Newbury had lost their opening three games.
Maybe some of Albion's players expected to win, but they should know there are no easy wins away from home in Division One.
Newbury's start to the season may have looked poor on paper, but two of their defeats had been away from home and by all accounts they could have won their only other league game at Monks Lane against Moseley.
Nearly every team in Division One are strong at home, but the difference between the teams at the top and those in the middle and at the bottom is the ability to collect points on their travels, which is not an easy thing to do as results every week prove. The Cornish Pirates, who came unstuck at Coventry, almost lost at winless Otley last Saturday, while Doncaster struggled to overcome Manchester at Grove Park.
Newbury were certainly up for their game against Albion. They really pressed Graham Dawe's side into mistakes. The pressure they put on Albion's half-backs was immense and Greg Nicholls and, then when he came on, David Palu were given no time whatsoever to distrubute the ball.
A few times it looked like Newbury must have been off-side to have got to Nicholls or Palu so quickly, but if you can get away with it then it is good play and Albion's forwards will be disappointed that Newbury got around the sides so often.
Yet the big frustration for Albion was failing to make three five-metre line-outs tell when on each occassion they had the push on their visitors.
It seems like a long time since Albion have driven a team over from a scrum, but it looked like they were going to do that last Saturday only for the ball to come loose.
At one time when Albion had the likes of Dan Ward-Smith, Will James, Andy Perry, Brett Luxton, Wayne Reed and Graham Dawe in their pack a five-metre scrum was nearly a certain try.
Probably about a third of Ward-Smith's 100 tries for Albion came from scrums, but now with most teams professional in Division One, it is very difficult for teams to score pushover tries, although Albion could have done that on Saturday with a bit more control.
With both James Owen and Gareth Evans unavailable, Albion opted to start with Graham Dawe in their line-up. It was Dawe's first start since Albion's Division One title showdown with Bristol in March 2005 - a game that saw Martin Rice make his debut.
Dawe put many of his younger team-mates to shame last Saturday with the passion, effort and commitment he showed and he ended up playing the full 80 minutes at Monks Lane. It was the first time he had played a full first team game since October 2004. But Dawe will probably be the first to admit, that he should not be picking up Albion man of the match awards at 49!
Hopefully, Albion can put their away record right when they visit Otley in their next away game, although before that they have a very tough match this weekend at home to London Welsh, who have won three of their four games this season.
Anyway, if any Albion supporters need a positive thought after Saturday’s defeat here’s one. When Albion finished third behind big spending Worcester and Orrell in 2003-04, they lost three out of their first four games, including home defeats to Otley and Bedford.
* Although the season is only a few weeks old the award for strangest shirt sponsorship has to go to Newbury.
Maybe their shirts could be their secret weapon this year. Having jerseys with 'Jokers' written in large letters on the front of them may lead opposition teams into a false sense of security!
Well that was the date of Albion's last league away win.
It came against Moseley at Billesley Common with Albion winning 29-10.
Albion have claimed cup away wins at Henley, Pertemps Bees and Rotherham in 2008, but they have not been able to break their duck in the league. The closest they came was a draw 17-17 at the Cornish Pirates in April.
When Graham Dawe first arrived at Albion the club's poor away record was one of the things he put right.
In the previous two seasons before Dawe arrived at Beacon Park, Albion could hardly buy a win on their travels - although they did pull one out of the bag in their final match of the 1998-99 season at Weston-super-Mare to maintain their National League status.
But Albion's travel sickness appears to have returned in the last 12 months.
It is interesting to note that while Albion cannot buy a win away from home, footballing neighbours Argyle have the opposite problem - they are picking up points on the road but not at Home Park.
Albion went to Newbury last Saturday optimistic that they could put an end to their disappointing away form.
They went into the match on the back of a six-try win over Manchester, while Newbury had lost their opening three games.
Maybe some of Albion's players expected to win, but they should know there are no easy wins away from home in Division One.
Newbury's start to the season may have looked poor on paper, but two of their defeats had been away from home and by all accounts they could have won their only other league game at Monks Lane against Moseley.
Nearly every team in Division One are strong at home, but the difference between the teams at the top and those in the middle and at the bottom is the ability to collect points on their travels, which is not an easy thing to do as results every week prove. The Cornish Pirates, who came unstuck at Coventry, almost lost at winless Otley last Saturday, while Doncaster struggled to overcome Manchester at Grove Park.
Newbury were certainly up for their game against Albion. They really pressed Graham Dawe's side into mistakes. The pressure they put on Albion's half-backs was immense and Greg Nicholls and, then when he came on, David Palu were given no time whatsoever to distrubute the ball.
A few times it looked like Newbury must have been off-side to have got to Nicholls or Palu so quickly, but if you can get away with it then it is good play and Albion's forwards will be disappointed that Newbury got around the sides so often.
Yet the big frustration for Albion was failing to make three five-metre line-outs tell when on each occassion they had the push on their visitors.
It seems like a long time since Albion have driven a team over from a scrum, but it looked like they were going to do that last Saturday only for the ball to come loose.
At one time when Albion had the likes of Dan Ward-Smith, Will James, Andy Perry, Brett Luxton, Wayne Reed and Graham Dawe in their pack a five-metre scrum was nearly a certain try.
Probably about a third of Ward-Smith's 100 tries for Albion came from scrums, but now with most teams professional in Division One, it is very difficult for teams to score pushover tries, although Albion could have done that on Saturday with a bit more control.
With both James Owen and Gareth Evans unavailable, Albion opted to start with Graham Dawe in their line-up. It was Dawe's first start since Albion's Division One title showdown with Bristol in March 2005 - a game that saw Martin Rice make his debut.
Dawe put many of his younger team-mates to shame last Saturday with the passion, effort and commitment he showed and he ended up playing the full 80 minutes at Monks Lane. It was the first time he had played a full first team game since October 2004. But Dawe will probably be the first to admit, that he should not be picking up Albion man of the match awards at 49!
Hopefully, Albion can put their away record right when they visit Otley in their next away game, although before that they have a very tough match this weekend at home to London Welsh, who have won three of their four games this season.
Anyway, if any Albion supporters need a positive thought after Saturday’s defeat here’s one. When Albion finished third behind big spending Worcester and Orrell in 2003-04, they lost three out of their first four games, including home defeats to Otley and Bedford.
* Although the season is only a few weeks old the award for strangest shirt sponsorship has to go to Newbury.
Maybe their shirts could be their secret weapon this year. Having jerseys with 'Jokers' written in large letters on the front of them may lead opposition teams into a false sense of security!
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Did more than one record go?
THERE must surely have been two records set at Brickfields on Saturday when Albion beat Manchester 47-6.
Danny Thomas officially set one when he played his 177th league game for the club.
That saw him become Albion's new league appearance record holder.
Richard Thompson had previously held the mark with 176 until this season.
Thomas will be finally glad to officially hold the title after rather embarrassingly being credited with achieving the honour in 2007 by the annual rugby yearbook.
Mind you there are plenty of records around clubs and the leagues outside the Premiership that are not 'officially' recorded properly in publications.
One mark that does not seem to officially appear anywhere is the tag of oldest National Division One player. There is one for the Premiership and Graham Dawe appears high on that list having played in the top flight at the age of 39.
But Albion's chairman of rugby must surely have set a new Division One mark on Saturday when he took to the field for the final 10 minutes against Manchester.
Former England hooker Dawe turned 49 at the start of September and it is quite incredible that he can still mix it in professional rugby - not just on the local park in a merit table clash.
Stanley Matthews famously played professional football at 50 - and would anyone bet against Dawe matching his feat in rugby?
However, the rumours are that the feat would not be unique as Dawe’s ex-England front-row colleagues Jeff Probyn and Paul Rendall have both claimed to have played rugby since turning 50, albeit in the lower leagues.
“Forty-nine’s not a bad effort, but I was 51 when I played for Cleckheaton, so Dawesy’s got some way to go yet,” Probyn told a national newspaper this week.
However, according to reports in Yorkshire, Probyn was actually 47 when he turned out for Cleckheaton to help them out of a front-row crisis.
And even if he and Rendall did play at 50 there is a bit of difference between Division Three North/South, North One or London One than the now almost fully-professional National Division One.
Some people probably think Dawe shouldn't have sat on the bench on Saturday in the absence of the injured James Owen just because of his age.
But should age matter?
We often hear the argument 'if you are good enough, you are old enough' when a youngster is thrown in, so why shouldn't you have 'if you are good enough, you are young enough'?
People will say that it is not looking to the future calling on an old experienced head instead of an inexperienced youngster, but do supporters really care about next season or the season after?
If Albion had lost at home to Manchester after losing at Nottingham, how many supporters would have been satisfied with an after-match quote that went along the lines of 'yeah we lost but it's good for the future as a people got their first taste of National Division One rugby?'
Dawe, who was third choice hooker last season, knows he has to perform if he comes on as the whole rugby world will be ready to criticise him if he's not up to the task.
And his appearance on Saturday certainly livened up a Brickfields crowd that had gone quiet at Albion's lack to add to their three tries in the first 20 minutes. As soon as Dawe appeared on the touchline to come on to the field the chorus of 'who let the Dawe out...' rang out of the East Stand
Also the talk long after the game was not only about the stunning tries scored by Liam Gibson and Geoff Griffiths but of a great off-load and a flying tackle made by Dawe!
Dawe, though, did sit out Albion's development team's game at Exeter United on Monday night.
Albion fielded a genuine development team, with only four players over 23 and only two established National Division One players in their side.
Exeter, on the other hand, fielded an entire squad of recognised Division One players, including three of Albion's first team last season, and it was not major surprise that the Sandy Park side ran out comfortable winners.
Ed Lewsey, who had been voted The Herald’s player of the year last season by readers, had to make do with only being a replacement for Exeter, who did include Matt Jess – 17 league tries in 2007/08, Danny Gray – Division One’s fifth top kicker in 07/08, Mark Fatialofa, Sam Blythe, Gary Kingdom, Stephen Ward, Alan Miller and former fellow former Albion players Tom Hayes and Emyr Lewis in the starting line-up.
It was a good chance, though, for some of Albion's young players to show whether they are up to the standard to play in rugby's second tier.
Although they did lose heavily there were some encourages displays from some young Albion players who at least now know how big the gap between playing the likes of Torquay and Brixham and Division One.
Since it was set-up the Warriors has been a success in bringing through talent. Players like Lee Robinson, Lee and Tom Arscott, Mike Lewis and Mike Denbee are just some of the success stories.
And there are a new crop of youngsters this year hoping to make the grade in the Warriors and progress into the first team.
Danny Thomas officially set one when he played his 177th league game for the club.
That saw him become Albion's new league appearance record holder.
Richard Thompson had previously held the mark with 176 until this season.
Thomas will be finally glad to officially hold the title after rather embarrassingly being credited with achieving the honour in 2007 by the annual rugby yearbook.
Mind you there are plenty of records around clubs and the leagues outside the Premiership that are not 'officially' recorded properly in publications.
One mark that does not seem to officially appear anywhere is the tag of oldest National Division One player. There is one for the Premiership and Graham Dawe appears high on that list having played in the top flight at the age of 39.
But Albion's chairman of rugby must surely have set a new Division One mark on Saturday when he took to the field for the final 10 minutes against Manchester.
Former England hooker Dawe turned 49 at the start of September and it is quite incredible that he can still mix it in professional rugby - not just on the local park in a merit table clash.
Stanley Matthews famously played professional football at 50 - and would anyone bet against Dawe matching his feat in rugby?
However, the rumours are that the feat would not be unique as Dawe’s ex-England front-row colleagues Jeff Probyn and Paul Rendall have both claimed to have played rugby since turning 50, albeit in the lower leagues.
“Forty-nine’s not a bad effort, but I was 51 when I played for Cleckheaton, so Dawesy’s got some way to go yet,” Probyn told a national newspaper this week.
However, according to reports in Yorkshire, Probyn was actually 47 when he turned out for Cleckheaton to help them out of a front-row crisis.
And even if he and Rendall did play at 50 there is a bit of difference between Division Three North/South, North One or London One than the now almost fully-professional National Division One.
Some people probably think Dawe shouldn't have sat on the bench on Saturday in the absence of the injured James Owen just because of his age.
But should age matter?
We often hear the argument 'if you are good enough, you are old enough' when a youngster is thrown in, so why shouldn't you have 'if you are good enough, you are young enough'?
People will say that it is not looking to the future calling on an old experienced head instead of an inexperienced youngster, but do supporters really care about next season or the season after?
If Albion had lost at home to Manchester after losing at Nottingham, how many supporters would have been satisfied with an after-match quote that went along the lines of 'yeah we lost but it's good for the future as a people got their first taste of National Division One rugby?'
Dawe, who was third choice hooker last season, knows he has to perform if he comes on as the whole rugby world will be ready to criticise him if he's not up to the task.
And his appearance on Saturday certainly livened up a Brickfields crowd that had gone quiet at Albion's lack to add to their three tries in the first 20 minutes. As soon as Dawe appeared on the touchline to come on to the field the chorus of 'who let the Dawe out...' rang out of the East Stand
Also the talk long after the game was not only about the stunning tries scored by Liam Gibson and Geoff Griffiths but of a great off-load and a flying tackle made by Dawe!
Dawe, though, did sit out Albion's development team's game at Exeter United on Monday night.
Albion fielded a genuine development team, with only four players over 23 and only two established National Division One players in their side.
Exeter, on the other hand, fielded an entire squad of recognised Division One players, including three of Albion's first team last season, and it was not major surprise that the Sandy Park side ran out comfortable winners.
Ed Lewsey, who had been voted The Herald’s player of the year last season by readers, had to make do with only being a replacement for Exeter, who did include Matt Jess – 17 league tries in 2007/08, Danny Gray – Division One’s fifth top kicker in 07/08, Mark Fatialofa, Sam Blythe, Gary Kingdom, Stephen Ward, Alan Miller and former fellow former Albion players Tom Hayes and Emyr Lewis in the starting line-up.
It was a good chance, though, for some of Albion's young players to show whether they are up to the standard to play in rugby's second tier.
Although they did lose heavily there were some encourages displays from some young Albion players who at least now know how big the gap between playing the likes of Torquay and Brixham and Division One.
Since it was set-up the Warriors has been a success in bringing through talent. Players like Lee Robinson, Lee and Tom Arscott, Mike Lewis and Mike Denbee are just some of the success stories.
And there are a new crop of youngsters this year hoping to make the grade in the Warriors and progress into the first team.
Friday, 12 September 2008
Milestones against Manchester
PLYMOUTH Albion will mark a couple of milestones tomorrow when Manchester visit Brickfields.
The first will see flanker Danny Thomas set a new club record for league appearances against the Grove Park side.
Thomas will be playing his 177th league game for Albion, which will break Richard Thompson’s long-standing record of 176 games.
Barnstaple-born Thomas first joined Albion in the summer of 2000 and made his debut in the club’s opening game of the season against Penzance-Newlyn at Beacon Park. Albion won that National League Division Three South game 19-0 and went on to win all their league fixtures that season to secure the title and claim promotion to Division Two.
Thomas captained the side to promotion the following season and later became the first Albion player to lead a team out in a cup final at Twickenham.
Yet it looked like he had missed out on breaking the league appearance record in 2007 when he announced he was leaving Albion and calling time on his National League playing career to take up a coaching role at Taunton.
Thomas had been troubled by a neck injury and was keen to moving into the coaching side of rugby.
But this summer he decided to return to Brickfields. He has returned primarily as a coach, but did say he would play if needed – which has been the case at the start of this season due to injuries to Kyle Marriott, Jake Childs and the late arrival of Sean-Michael Stephen.
Although setting a new club record is nice for Thomas, it is sad to see a loyal Albion man Thompson lose a record.
Born-and-bred Plymothian Thompson served Albion for over a decade, experiencing both highs and some very low lows. He first made his debut as a teenager, alongside his older brother, Martin.
And Thompson, who played alongside Thomas in Albion’s two promotion winning teams, would surely not be losing his record tomorrow had National League rugby played as many games a season as it does now.
It was a similar story when Dan Ward-Smith broke Steve Walklin’s club record for career league tries. For a large spell of Walklin’s Albion career, clubs only played around 12 league fixtures a season, whereas now there are 30 games on the calendar.
The other milestone that will be celebrated tomorrow against Manchester is the fifth anniversary of the opening of Brickfields.
Albion’s first game there, which was against Otley, came exactly five years to the day.
The club only decided a few months earlier to definitely move from Beacon Park, which had been their home for over 80 years. And a couple of weeks before they were due to face Otley Brickfields still looked just like an open field.
But, incredibly, in the space of two weeks a 5,000-plus stadium with nearly 1,000 seats and over 2,500 covered areas, was created.
Certain items from Beacon Park were transferred down the road, including the well-loved manual scoreboard and the contents of the ‘blue room’.
On the big day Albion had the Royal Marines helicopter the match ball in, they had dancing girls and a band, but, unfortunately, it went wrong on the field with them losing 16-10 having been 10-0 up at half-time.
Albion also lost their next match there – a 24-15 defeat to Bedford.
People started believing the old Raglan’s Barracks site was haunted and that there was a hoodoo on the pitch.
So drastic action was called for – and it came in the form of Italian prop Tino Paoletti.
Another Italian had mentioned to the club that throwing salt onto the pitch would bring good luck. They were assured it was an Italian custom.
So the Albion players decided to have Italian international Paoletti perform the ritual on the pitch (who said sports people were superstitious!).
Anyway, it certainly did the trick as Albion hammered Redruth 64-14 in the Powergen Cup in their next match at Brickfields.
And their first league win came in their next home fixture when tomorrow’s opponents Manchester visited. Albion won that game 54-14 and ran in nine tries.
After that Brickfields became something of a fortress.
Albion’s impressive home record slipped last season. Many people in rugby believe that Albion have made Brickfields too nice to visit. When Albion first went there none of their opponents liked the old stone dressing rooms, which had hit-and-miss showers.
Brickfields has certainly changed incredibly in the last five years.
It is now the biggest rugby union-only ground in National Division One with a capacity of 8,400, which includes 3,500 seats and covered areas for over 2,000 people.
Premiership-standard floodlights have been added, as has an electronic scoreboard (although the club have also kept their manual one from Beacon Park) and grandstands on three sides.
The club have plans to develop it even further, including four extra sections to be added to the current 1,000-plus East Stand.
Albion, like Exeter, were told a couple of years ago that to have any chance of gaining promotion to the Premiership they had to have their own ground, which could hold over 10,000 people.
Those two clubs have invested heavily in their grounds on that basis, which is why it would not be fair to change the rules now on promotion criteria.
People will say that if a club wins the league then they should be promoted, whatever, but after Albion and Exeter were told a few years back that they needed top-quality facilities they had done that at considerable financial cost.
Both Brickfields and Sandy Park are a credit to South West rugby and deserve to host top quality rugby games, but, honestly, hands up how many people miss the atmosphere and the mud bath games at Beacon Park and the County Ground?
The first will see flanker Danny Thomas set a new club record for league appearances against the Grove Park side.
Thomas will be playing his 177th league game for Albion, which will break Richard Thompson’s long-standing record of 176 games.
Barnstaple-born Thomas first joined Albion in the summer of 2000 and made his debut in the club’s opening game of the season against Penzance-Newlyn at Beacon Park. Albion won that National League Division Three South game 19-0 and went on to win all their league fixtures that season to secure the title and claim promotion to Division Two.
Thomas captained the side to promotion the following season and later became the first Albion player to lead a team out in a cup final at Twickenham.
Yet it looked like he had missed out on breaking the league appearance record in 2007 when he announced he was leaving Albion and calling time on his National League playing career to take up a coaching role at Taunton.
Thomas had been troubled by a neck injury and was keen to moving into the coaching side of rugby.
But this summer he decided to return to Brickfields. He has returned primarily as a coach, but did say he would play if needed – which has been the case at the start of this season due to injuries to Kyle Marriott, Jake Childs and the late arrival of Sean-Michael Stephen.
Although setting a new club record is nice for Thomas, it is sad to see a loyal Albion man Thompson lose a record.
Born-and-bred Plymothian Thompson served Albion for over a decade, experiencing both highs and some very low lows. He first made his debut as a teenager, alongside his older brother, Martin.
And Thompson, who played alongside Thomas in Albion’s two promotion winning teams, would surely not be losing his record tomorrow had National League rugby played as many games a season as it does now.
It was a similar story when Dan Ward-Smith broke Steve Walklin’s club record for career league tries. For a large spell of Walklin’s Albion career, clubs only played around 12 league fixtures a season, whereas now there are 30 games on the calendar.
The other milestone that will be celebrated tomorrow against Manchester is the fifth anniversary of the opening of Brickfields.
Albion’s first game there, which was against Otley, came exactly five years to the day.
The club only decided a few months earlier to definitely move from Beacon Park, which had been their home for over 80 years. And a couple of weeks before they were due to face Otley Brickfields still looked just like an open field.
But, incredibly, in the space of two weeks a 5,000-plus stadium with nearly 1,000 seats and over 2,500 covered areas, was created.
Certain items from Beacon Park were transferred down the road, including the well-loved manual scoreboard and the contents of the ‘blue room’.
On the big day Albion had the Royal Marines helicopter the match ball in, they had dancing girls and a band, but, unfortunately, it went wrong on the field with them losing 16-10 having been 10-0 up at half-time.
Albion also lost their next match there – a 24-15 defeat to Bedford.
People started believing the old Raglan’s Barracks site was haunted and that there was a hoodoo on the pitch.
So drastic action was called for – and it came in the form of Italian prop Tino Paoletti.
Another Italian had mentioned to the club that throwing salt onto the pitch would bring good luck. They were assured it was an Italian custom.
So the Albion players decided to have Italian international Paoletti perform the ritual on the pitch (who said sports people were superstitious!).
Anyway, it certainly did the trick as Albion hammered Redruth 64-14 in the Powergen Cup in their next match at Brickfields.
And their first league win came in their next home fixture when tomorrow’s opponents Manchester visited. Albion won that game 54-14 and ran in nine tries.
After that Brickfields became something of a fortress.
Albion’s impressive home record slipped last season. Many people in rugby believe that Albion have made Brickfields too nice to visit. When Albion first went there none of their opponents liked the old stone dressing rooms, which had hit-and-miss showers.
Brickfields has certainly changed incredibly in the last five years.
It is now the biggest rugby union-only ground in National Division One with a capacity of 8,400, which includes 3,500 seats and covered areas for over 2,000 people.
Premiership-standard floodlights have been added, as has an electronic scoreboard (although the club have also kept their manual one from Beacon Park) and grandstands on three sides.
The club have plans to develop it even further, including four extra sections to be added to the current 1,000-plus East Stand.
Albion, like Exeter, were told a couple of years ago that to have any chance of gaining promotion to the Premiership they had to have their own ground, which could hold over 10,000 people.
Those two clubs have invested heavily in their grounds on that basis, which is why it would not be fair to change the rules now on promotion criteria.
People will say that if a club wins the league then they should be promoted, whatever, but after Albion and Exeter were told a few years back that they needed top-quality facilities they had done that at considerable financial cost.
Both Brickfields and Sandy Park are a credit to South West rugby and deserve to host top quality rugby games, but, honestly, hands up how many people miss the atmosphere and the mud bath games at Beacon Park and the County Ground?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)