Donny to win the cup?

DONCASTER to win the National Trophy?
Well, if the bookies are superstitious then they will insert them as the new favourites after seeing off Albion 21-3 at Castle Park on Saturday.
Since the National Trophy replaced the Powergen Shield in 2005-06, Albion have only ever been beaten by the eventual winners.
In 2005-06 they lost a thrilling quarter-final game to Harlequins at the Stoop.
And obviously Quins then went on the win the final that year.
In 2006-07, Albion made it to the semi-finals where they were agonisingly beaten by the Cornish Pirates at Camborne.
The Pirates then went at beat Exeter at Twickenham.
Last year Albion also reached the semi-finals but went out at home to Northampton, who - you guessed it - claimed the trophy.
So it has to be Doncaster this year - right!
They will certainly be one of the teams to watch out for, especially if they can keep getting home draws.
Injury-hit Albion will feel disappointed with the final score at Castle Park on Saturday.
They enjoyed the better of the first period and should have gone in at the break in the lead instead of at 3-3.
Doncaster did up their game considerable after the interval, but the match was eventually decided by two silly penalties Albion gave away when they had the ball and an interception try.
There were some positives for Albion and if they can get some of their injured players back by March they will should go to Castle Park for their league game with some confidence.
Albion do seem to have had some terrible luck with injuries over the past few seasons.
They had nine players who had played for the first team this season unavailable at the weekend, including top points scorer Kieran Hallett and joint top try scorer Geoff Griffiths.
They then lost centres Ross Allan and Keni Fisilau in the space of 12 minutes due to injuries at Castle Park.
Long-serving Tongan interational Fisilau, who joined Albion in 2001, dislocated his shoulder at Doncaster.
The injury will almost certainly end his season.
It must be frustrating for Graham Dawe to know that they is still nearly half a season to go but he will not be able to call on Hallett, Fisilau, James Tideswell or David Palu, who has returned to New Zealand after suffering a serious knee injury in October.
But the injuries do mean there will be more opportunities for some of the club’s young players.
Rory Watts-Jones was handed his chance against Doncaster.
A common asked question on Saturday was ‘who is Rory Watts-Jones?’
It was a similar scenario to when Dawe handed Hopper is chance in November.
Although Dawe does not get to watch all the Westcountry Warriors match as often they clash with first team games, Albion’s chairman of rugby follows the progress of all the players in the club’s development side and is never scared to throw them in at the deep end every so often, especially in the cup.
In recent years young players like Mike Denbee, Matt Newman, Ed King, Jake Childs, Harry Spencer and Dan Hawkes have all been given their chance in the National Trophy, while before them people like Luke Arscott, Chris Lowrie, Brett Stroud, Ryan Hopkins and Stuart Friswell got their chances to prove themselves in the Powergen Cup.
The young players in the Warriors know if they play well week in week out then there is a chance they will be promoted to the first team, which is not always the case at some other clubs.
That is part of the reason why so many young players want to join the club - and often it is players who have slipped through the RFU net.
Maybe the RFU should offer National League clubs money for producing English-qualified Premiership or international players.
Premiership clubs get money for academies, but there is a lot of players in the top flight now who came through Division One rather than a 18-21-year-old RFU-backed academy.

Up for the cup

ALBION are in National Trophy action this weekend when they take on their Division One rivals Doncaster away at Castle Park.
It was not the best draw in the world for Albion, although Doncaster will probably feel the same as well.
It is certainly the tie of the round - pitting the fourth place team - Doncaster - against sixth-placed Albion.
Albion did beat Donny narrowly at Brickfields in November, but Graham Dawe’s side are still yet to win at Castle Park.
However, the two teams have never been separated by more than one score in the seven previous league meetings.
This, though, will be the first time Albion have met Donny in a cup competition.
Yet if Albion, who first visited Castle Park in October 2005, are looking for a lucky omen then they should remember the 2004-05 season when they reached at Twickenham final for the first time in their history.
That season they were drawn away at fellow South Yorkshire side Rotherham in the opening round of the cup. They had never won before on Rotherham soil, but they went up to Clifton Lane and secured a 17-16 victory and went on to enjoy a great cup run - first in the Powergen Cup and then in the Powergen Shield.
It is just such a shame Albion are going to be without players like Kieran Hallett, Geoff Griffiths, Kyle Marriott and Martin Rice for Saturday’s trip.
It was confirmed this week that fly-half Hallett will miss the rest of the season after having ankle surgery.
Hallett suffered the injury in training just when he was in the form of his young career.
He had scored 143 points in just 13 league starts for the club and was getting better with each game.
Hopefully, Albion supporters will see him next season.
Number eight Marriott, who was also in the best form of his short career, had an operation on his knee this week which will keep him out for at least six weeks.
Griffiths, hopefully, will only be out for another week with bruised ribs, while prop Rice is starting his rehab from medial ligament damage.
Albion could certainly field a good team of injured players at the moment.
It would include Griffiths, Hallett, Rice, Marriott, Nat Saumi, Gareth Evans, Wihan Neethling, James Tideswell, David Palu, Darren Ritchie, Ross Batten.
When you consider that Colin Stewart, Mike Denbee, Liam Gibson, James Owen, Alex Davies and Jake Childs have all missed at least a month of the season due to injury it does show what a tough sport rugby is.
On the general rugby front, the future of the new Championship is back in doubt again after the Premiership clubs voted this week to increase their number of fixtures, but not the number of teams.
It appears the Premiership clubs would rather add extra fixtures to their programme than participate in a new Anglo-Welsh Cup competition which would also be open to Championship teams.
The RFU have called the Premiership clubs to a meetings to discuss their plans.
Rugby fans, though, are fed up of being messed around. Sort it out somebody!

What a waste

ALBION’S players and supporters had every reason to feel frustrated about the late postponement of Saturday’s match at London Welsh.
The game had looked in doubt all week, so much so that the Exiles had decided not to even print their usual matchday programme because of the likelihood of the fixture getting called off.
Yet two RFU referees came to the conclusion that the game would be able to go ahead when they inspected the pitch on Friday afternoon.
However, differing officials decided on the same day that the games at nearby Richmond - which is as close to London Welsh’s ground as The Rectory is to Brickfields - and Harlequins would not be able to be played having considered the state of the pitch and the predicted overnight weather.
Quins, being a Premiership side, even had covers and heaters for their pitch, but could not save it.
Harlequins and Richmond do have bigger stands surrounding their pitches, but anyone who saw the predicted weather for Friday evening would have put money on the game at Old Deer Park not going ahead.
Yet Albion had to travel because of the decision made on the Friday afternoon.
The clubs supporters also had to set off early Saturday to make sure they would arrive in time for the early 2pm kick-off.
Those supporters must be wondering why nobody could have called the game off at 7am when it was clear the game could not be played rather than waiting to after 10am when many fans were halfway to London.
Plymouth Argyle’s match was called off over six-and-a-half hours before kick-off.
The Football League had issued a memo to clubs and referees asking them to make early decisions on pitches to save supporters wasted journeys.
All fans know that at this time of the year there is always a risk that games could get called off, but if there is any doubt, especially a big one, it is better to call a match off before supporters waste their hard-earned money travelling.
Albion had a similar experience in 2002-03 - their first season back in National Division One, when Bedford were adamant that their match against them at Goldington Road would be played, despite the fact that nearly every football and lower level rugby games in the area had been called off earlier in the week.
Argyle had been due to play at Luton that day, but their fixture was called on the Thursday.
Albion, though, were forced to travel up, despite a shocking weather forecast, and come the day of the game Yorkshire referee Mark Wilson was forced to call the fixture of because the stand side of Goldington Road was still frozen.
Albion supporters ended up going to watch Northampton play a European game at Franklin’s Gardens, but they were not happy.
What must be frustrating for National Division One fans is the lack of covered the league gets from the national media.
While all the football matches that were postponed, including those at Conference level, and the Premiership rugby call offs were announced on BBC Radio Five there was no mention of the postponed games in Division One.
Also ceefax just left off any National League rugby fixtures that had been called off.
They did not write postponed next to them like they did with the Premiership rugby or the football games.
Viewers were just left to guess that because their team was not mentioned the game had been postponed.
It is about time certain sections of the national media realised how popular some of the clubs are in rugby’s second tier.
Albion, Exeter and the Pirates can all pull in 6,000 or 7,000 fans for big home games and they do have good travelling support - certainly better than many lower league football or Conference clubs.
Mind you the league itself needs to give the impression of being more professional.
Hopefully, that will happen when the new Championship replaces National Division One.
To hear that clubs were talking about delaying games by 24 hours from the Saturday to the Sunday at short notice does nothing for the image of the league.
It implies it is an amateur league and that spectators, media, medical staff etc are not required.
Hopefully, teams in the Championship will also be required to have floodlights.
The number of postponed fixtures in the league this term could cause a problem for some teams.
London Welsh for example have two home games to rearranged and they don’t have any lights to play evening fixtures.
If they progress in the National Trophy they may be forced to stage their games at a different venue just to get them played.
The other match apart from Albion Welsh have to rearrange is against Moseley.
That match takes priority over the Albion one as it was postponed first.
So for example if Welsh, Albion and Moseley were all knocked out of the National Trophy this week the Exiles would play Moseley on February 7 and then Albion on February 28.
However, if Moseley go through to the next round then and Welsh and Albion don’t, then Welsh would play Albion on February 7.
It does start to get very complicated at this time of year – and guess what – according to the weather experts we have not seen the worst of winter yet!

No winning start to 2009

WELL Albion were unable to open 2009 with a victory.
Instead they had to settle for a home draw against Newbury, who have become something of a bogey team for Albion since they came and won 52-41 at Brickfields in 2005.
In most sports, players or teams just find some opponents difficult to beat for no obvious reason.
Sometimes styles of play just suit or don’t suit different teams. There can also be the psychological factor to add in as well.
Albion used to have problems claiming wins against Otley and Birmingham-Solihull at the time when they always seemed to beat Exeter, Bristol and the Cornish Pirates.
Most Albion supporters will be hoping that Saturday’s disappointing performance was just a blip and that the team can keep up the form they showed at the end of 2008.
The fans will certainly be hoping that January 2009 does not resemble January 2008, although they do have some tough games coming up with away matches at London Welsh, Doncaster and Exeter.
One more win, though, for Albion would equal the number of victories they achieved in the whole of the 2007-08 season.
Twelve wins last year was enough for eighth place in the table, but that does not look like it will be the case this term.
Kieran Hallett’s injury is a big disappointment for him and the club.
The Irishman had been in stunning form for Albion, scoring 143 in just 13 starts.
Hopefully, the injury will not keep him out for too long, but ligament damage can take a long time to repair.
The good news, though, for the club is the return of back-row forward Jake Childs and James Owen.
Childs was unlucky to dislocate his shoulder in pre-season.
He and fellow youngster Ross Batten had worked hard over the summer and were pushing on the first team door before suffering serious injuries in Albion’s warm-up games.
Batten, who broke his leg against Sidmouth, is still some weeks off returning, but both Childs and Batten have age on their sides.
Many Albion supporters will be sparing a thought for former hooker Stuart Friswell, who has been forced to retire from the sport this week.
Friswell, 25, joined Premiership newboys Northampton in the summer but he got injured in pre-season and after failing to recover has called time on his career.
He did play for Albion in the Powergen Shield final at Twickenham.

Goodbye to 2008

SO 2008 has finally come to an end.

It will not be remembered for the best year in Albion’s recent history, but the club have finished it on a high.

The team’s 31-5 win at Manchester was their third victory in a road and seventh in nine matches.It was also Albion’s second away victory in a row, following on from their 7-6 win in the mud at Coventry.

That game at Butts Park Arena was like turning the clock back a few years.

Nowadays you do not see many professional rugby matches played in those type of conditions.

In the amateur days – and when club rugby was not quite the spectator sport it has become - it was a regular occurrence not to be able to tell which team was which.

Albion have not experienced two many games like that in the last few years.

Yet the Coventry game did bring back memories of away matches against Nottingham and Kendal during the 2001-02 season.

Nottingham’s Ireland Avenue was in a similar state to Coventry’s Butts Park when Albion visited there in Division Two, while Kendal’s pitch was thick with mud that season and made running all-most impossible.

In the end Albion won 7-0 at Kendal, where it even snowed, thanks to a penalty try but the conditions that day probably cost Graham Dawe’s the title as they lost it narrowly on points difference.

It is probably a good job Albion have found a bit of form away as they face a lot of travel at the start of 2009.

For some unknown reason, Albion found themselves with 10 home fixtures before Christmas and only five after the festive period.

They have also been drawn away at fellow Division One side Doncaster in the National Trophy.

I think most supporters were disappointed with the cup draw.

Not only is Doncaster a tough place to go, but it can get boring visiting the same grounds all the time.

It would have been nice to have been handed a tie at ground where the club have not played before or haven’t been to for a long while.

The rise up the National League system from 2000 was great for Albion fans. They got to visit so many different grounds.

Albion, since Graham Dawe took over, have played at over 60 different venues, but the last few years have become stale with the same teams coming up and down from Division Two and the Premiership.

And it will even get worse when the new 12-team Championship comes in and the National Trophy is scrapped.

Supporters and players like visiting different venues and meeting different people, but the chances of doing that are drying up fast.

Hopefully, Albion will beat Doncaster and get drawn away at somewhere like Braodstreet, Cinderford or Hull.

I think most Albion supporters are going into 2009 in optimistic mood.

Speaking to fans they have really enjoyed watching Albion’s young team develop this season.

Lots of people voiced concerns in the summer when so many experienced players left the club and not too many big names arrived, but how many people would now swap the young players in the team now for those who left at the end of last season?

The team has really grown in recent weeks and young players like Mike Lewis, Mike Denbee, Kyle Marriott, Matt Hopper, Ross Allan and Tom Jarvis are beginning to make their names in Division One.

Although they suffered a couple of heavy away defeats at Bedford and Leeds, they appear to have learned from them.

And the home victories over Nottingham, the Cornish Pirates and Doncaster were great.

The Nottingham and Pirates matches were particularly thrilling and anyone who paid money to watch those fixtures would have certainly felt they had got value for money.

I would like to pose a couple of questions.

Are Albion supporters enjoying this season more than Exeter fans?

Does having expectations too high ruined your enjoyment if you don't meet them?