The Gunner - Talking Albion and rugby

Donny to win the cup?

2009-01-18T15:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T07:36:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-01-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

No winning start to 2009

2009-01-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-01T11:18:00.001-08:00

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?

So close

2008-10-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

ALBION didn’t managed to claim their first league win on Rotherham soil at the weekend - but they could not have come closer to do so.
In the end only the wind denied Albion a victory, with Kieran Hallett’s last-gasp into the gale-force wind dropping just short of the bar.
However, earning a draw at Clifton Lane is not a bad result.After going 11 months without an away win in the league, Albion have now gone two unbeaten, having won at Otley and draw at Rotherham.
Otley and Rotherham are two of the most unappealing trips of the season.Not only are they long distances away from Plymouth, but it is normally always cold and wet at Cross Green and Clifton Lane.It was certainly wet and windy at Rotherham last weekend.
The wind, blowing straight down the pitch, was incredibly strong and it affected the game.Albion appear to been developing a great team spirit.
The way the team defended at Clifton Lane showed a real desire to play for each other.Albion’s back-row of Sean-Michael Stephen, Mike Denbee and Gareth Evans particularly stood out.
Stephen appears to be getting better each game as he continues his recovery from a back injury, while Denbee, now in his second season at Albion, has established himself as one of the club’s main players.
It is just a shame the back-row will be broken up after this weekend’s match against Sedgley Park, as Stephen is in Canada’s squad for their autumn internationals, which will rule him out of three Albion matches, along with team-mate Justin Mensah-Coker.
Sedgley Park will arrive at Brickfields hoping to secure their first win over Albion.
The Tigers have lost in their previous 10 meetings against Albion, although there have been some close and intense clashes.
The first encounter at Brickfields on the opening day of the 2001-02 season was particularly memorable.
Albion gave debuts to Keni Fisilau, Will James, Andy Perry and Brett Luxton, while Sedgley Park included the likes of Colin Stephens, Carlos Hassan, John Scales and Christian Radacanu.
Albion’s pack was outstanding on the day and Dawe’s side ran out 34-13 winners.
Most people probably remember Albion driving Sedgley Park back fully 45 metres.
Last year’s match at Brickfields was close, with Albion coming back from 19-3 down to win 25-19.
Tomorrow’s match is the first of four home games for Albion, with Doncaster, Esher and Cornish Pirates all set to visit Brickfields in November.

Albion bounce back

2008-10-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

ALBION put behind them their Devon derby disappointment to bounce back against Moseley at Brickfields on Saturday.
It was a well-deserved win. Although Moseley dominated the first 20 minutes once Albion got their first try they grew in confidence and they should have really collected a bonus point as well.
Albion certainly had enough chances to score four tries. However, in the end they had to settle for just two.
Off the field, Albion have been busy out in the community.
As well as visiting hundreds of local schools, the club are also offering coaching sessions for coaches.
Coaches from local clubs all across Devon regular visit the club to pick up tips on training sessions.
This week the club held one for scrum play, which was taken by Graham Dawe, Ryan Hopkins and Jane du Toit.
Although what happens on the field is important, doing work in the community is also important. Albion have certainly improved their relationships in recent years with the Combination clubs and are encouraging city youngsters to take up the sport.
Not all the kids who attend their coaching sessions will end up playing for Albion, but they may end up playing for some of the other local clubs.
Albion also have a number of young players in their Westcountry Warriors side who will play for other Combination teams on a Saturday if they do not have a Canterbury Shield fixture.
And, although, Albion have their fair share of imports they have a substantial number of city-born players in their squad, like James Owen, Martin Rice, Mike Lewis, Arran Cruickshanks, Graham Dawe, Matt Newman, Darren Ritchie, Jamie Tripcony and Ross Batten, as well as Devonians Danny Thomas, Ryan Hopkins and Kyle Marriott.
Other city-born players Albion have had in the last few years, include Luke and Tom Arscott, Jon Fabian, Nigel Cane, Brett Luxton, Pete Risdon, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie and Harry Spencer.
Anyway, next up for Albion is a trip to Rotherham this weekend.
Rotherham has proved to be one of Albion’s least favourite places to visit.
Although they have won twice in the cup - last season and in 2004-05 - they have never won a league game there.
They have made six previous league visits - the first coming in 1995 - but they have always come out on the losing side.
And they have been some trips to the South Yorkshire town, Albion will want to forget, like when they lost 55-6 there in 2002-03 – which is the club’s biggest ever defeat under Graham Dawe - and when they had Keni Fisilau sent off in 2004.
If anyone wants to know why most RFU records are different to club records then Fisilau’s sending off is a perfect example.
Match statistics, which are sent off to the RFU, are done by a home official.
Not all home officials check the stats with the visiting team and so you often get mistakes happening, like wrong try scorers, wrong goalkickers etc etc.
In the case of Fisilau’s sending off, the match result sheet showed that Nat Saumi had been shown a red card.
Paper work was sent out for Saumi to appear in front of a disciplinary panel before the mistake was pointed out to the RFU.
Yet on the result archives of that match it still shows Saumi having been sent off.
Gareth Evans is also going to have problems rightfully claiming his try against Moseley last Saturday. Martin Rice was credited with the try. It was not until later that it was revealed Evans had actually scored it.
The league’s statistics have already credited Rice with the score, and once that happens it is tough to change it.
That is why at the end of the season you will see club statistics differing from the ‘official’ league ones.

2008-10-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

ALBION are back in action at home on Saturday when they entertain Moseley at Brickfields.Graham Dawe’s side will be keen to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointing result in the Devon derby.
Moseley are going well this year. They sit two places and one point above Albion in the table and last Saturday came agonisingly close to beating Nottingham - eventually losing 26-24 at Billesley Common.
Moseley won at Brickfields last season, when they triumphed 16-13. That was their first victory at Brickfields. They had lost 48-0 and 76-6 on their first two visits to Albion’s Devonport home.
Albion have suffered a double blow during the week with news that prop James Tideswell, scrum-half David Palu and utility back Geoff Griffiths will be out for lengthy spells.
Highly-rated Tideswell, a summer signing from Stourbridge, is set to miss the rest of the season after rupturing his ACL against London Welsh, which will require an operation.
Palu is also facing the prospect of missing most of his first season at Albion after dislocating his kneecap in the opening minutes against Exeter.
It is very disappointing for him as he was really beginning to make his mark at the club after arriving from New Zealand in the summer.
Griffiths, meanwhile, is facing 10 weeks out after suffering a nasty broken jaw against Exeter.The former Rotherham man has undergone an operation to insert screws and a plate into the jaw.
With Griffiths out, Albion will be hoping fellow winger Liam Gibson returns soon from his hamstring injury.
Griffiths, Tideswell and Palu fall into an unlucky band of players who have picked up serious injuries in their first season at Albion.Others players over the years who have fallen into that category are Kevin Foote, Santiago Franzini, Dai Llewellyn, Nic Rouse, Ed Barnes, Luke Arscott, Ben Gulliver, Francisco Deformes, Kyle Marriott and Mike Denbee.

What an atmosphere

2008-10-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

THE Devon derby match between Albion and Exeter at Brickfields was a great event - even if the result did not go the way Plymouth supporters wanted.
The atmosphere in the ground was tremendous.A record crowd of just under 7,000 turned up to watch.That is believed to be the biggest attendance for a league rugby match not featuring a team that had ever been in the Premiership.
The attendance was also larger than three of that weekend’s Heineken Cup games - Gwent Dragons v Glasgow (5,238), Calvisano v Cardiff (3,500) and Edinburgh v Leinster (5,372).
It was also not far short of the crowd that turned up for the Llanelli v Harlequins Heineken Cup game, which attracted 8,236 people.
It just shows the interest in rugby in Devon and make you think just what type of crowds could be pulled in if there was a Premiership club in the area.
Exeter’s win kept them in touch with leaders Leeds, but most people inside Brickfields felt the final scorelines flattered the Chiefs.
With just minutes of normal time remaining Albion were still in the running for a bonus point - attacking Exeter’s line just 13 points down.But two converted injury-time tries were a real kick in the teeth for Albion, who, despite a host of injuries, battled bravely.
With Liam Gibson, James Tideswell, Alex Davies, Jake Childs and Ross Batten already on the sidelines, Albion went and lost backs David Palu and Geoff Griffiths with nasty injuries early in the match against the Chiefs.
Exeter were the better team, but it was only a three of four players that made the difference on the day.
Rumours going around Brickfields before the match was that Exeter’s playing budget this season is over a £1million more than Albion’s – and all the other Division One clubs, apart from Leeds.
Who knows if that is true, but most people at Brickfields that day would not say they were a millions pounds better.
Exeter, whose Sandy Park ground is proving a popular conference centre, are certainly going for it this season, which you have to admire, but it is a gamble, especially when you see what happened to other clubs like Richmond and Orrell who chased the ‘dream’ too hard.
Even if you get the promised land of the Premiership it does not set you up for life – just look at Rotherham and even Bristol now.

Derby day delights

2008-10-10T03:08:00.001-07:00

SO Albion’s long wait for an away win finally came to an end last Saturday at a wet and windy Otley.
Albion had failed on 10 previous attempts to win in Division One on their travels.
They had claimed cup wins on the road but their league record was beginning to become something of a burden.
But that burden has been lifted from Albion’s shoulders thanks to a storming second half showing at Cross Green.
Having been 11-3 down at half-time, Albion turned on the style in the second period to score four tries to win 31-16 and claim a valuable bonus point.
That victory will have given Albion some confidence, which they will need this weekend when they take on their local rivals Exeter Chiefs, who are believed to have the biggest playing budget and squad in Division One.
Exeter will arrive at Brickfields having tasted just one defeat this season - a 14-13 home reverse to league leaders Leeds.
But derby matches can be hard to predict and form sometimes goes out of the window.
Albion and Exeter have been meeting in some form for over 100 years.
During that time both sides have had periods as Devon’s top team.
Albion had some big wins over Exeter in the 80s, while the Chiefs enjoyed some impressive victories in the 90s.
The teams have met 17 times in league rugby, with Exeter winning nine times, Albion seven and one game ending in a 7-7 draw.
Exeter have won the last four games – but only just - while Albion were unbeaten in the previous six encounters.
There have been some memorable games between the teams over the years.
Nine of the last 12 matches have been decided by just one score, including a draw and three one point winning margins.
Probably the most eagerly-awaited encounter came after Albion had just been promoted back into Division One.
Devon’s top two sides had not met in a league encounter for nearly six years, although they did play a fiercely contested Devon Cup game at the County Ground which saw Albion have two players sent off.
The first league game for nearly six years took place in December 2002 and the weather was terrible, with torrential rain all day.
The Beacon Park pitch ended up a mud bath and supporters could hardly tell the sides apart.
The interest in the game even saw local television record the match for a special programme, which went out on the Sunday.
Albion tried to throw a surprise by signing former England A centre Chris Yates in the week and attempting to keep his arrival secret. However, Exeter found out and made it known to the press.

The game was extremely competitive. Albion scored the only try, but Exeter won 12-5 courtesy of four Tony Yapp penalties.
Just as memorable as the game was Ian Bremner’s strange quote afterwards where he said: “One a dry day we would have murdered them”, which did nothing to help relations between the two sides.
And the corresponding game at the County Ground saw relations between the two clubs deteriorate further.

In a bad-tempered clash Exeter won 39-22, with Yapp’s boot again influential as he collected 24 of his side’s points, but the home side had three players sin-binned.
Brenmer was livid that three of his players were yellow card and Albion did not have any. He hit out at Albion’s style of play and the Chiefs decided to cite three Albion players – player-coaches Graham Dawe and Brett McCormack and lock Olly Kohn after the match.
Albion responded by citing three Exeter players – Danny Porte, Rob Baxter and Dave Simms.
As it was five of the six received bans. The only players to get off was Dawe, who had his case dismissed for lack of evidence.
After that game, Albion dominated the next six derby matches – but they did have a bit of luck along the way.
They won 19-17 in November 2003 at the County Ground when Tony Yapp missed two late kicks.
Yapp also missed a last-gasp penalty in September 2004 when Albion won 17-16 at Brickfields.

Albion also won the corresponding game at the County Ground that season by one point, thanks to an injury-time try by James Pritchard. The try came out of nothing and sent the thousands of travelling followers wild as the win put Albion in poll position at the time for promotion.

The biggest derby win in 10 years came on the opening day of the 2006-07 season when Albion won 35-13. The win was actually even easier than the scoreline suggested and the game saw Nic Sestaret, now at Exeter, score his first try for Albion.

That season’s corresponding fixture at the County Ground was a tight nail-biting affair that looked like it was heading for a 0-0 draw - which happened quite a few times between Albion and Exeter before league rugby came in - until Nat Saumi dived over in the right corner late on.

That was Albion’s last win, but they should have triumphed on their first visit to Sandy Park in October 2006.
Graham Dawe’s side dominated the first half and led 14-0. However, it should have been more, but somehow Wihan Neethling failed to score under the posts that would have put the visitors 21-0 up.
And Albion paid for not taking their chances after the interval with Exeter winning 18-14.
The Chiefs won the next two derby games 20-13 and 28-19, but the last clash again came down to the last kick of the game.
Albion were 11-10 down at Sandy Park in December, but were awarded a penalty 30 metres out deep in injury-time.
Ross Laidlaw stepped up knowing he could win the game for his team, but, despite most supporters thinking his kick was good, the ball just missed the far upright and Exeter breathed a might sigh of relief.

Who knows where this weekend’s game with be half as exciting as some of the recent encounters?
But there will sure to be a big crowd at Brickfields hoping so.
Some of the crowd may even remember when Albion’s first team was nicknamed the Chiefs.
Like many clubs at a certain time, Albion had teams called the Chiefs and United.
Now no Albion fan in their right mind would use the name Chiefs to talk about any team at Brickfields.

It's back to Otley

2008-10-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

THIS weekend Albion make their first trip to Otley’s picturesque Cross Green ground for over two years.
Albion’s last visit to the famous West Yorkshire stadium, which will always been remembered as the place where the All Blacks got a beating by the North, came on September 23, 2006.
Albion won that game 36-3 with 21 of their points coming from Wihan Neethling, who scored a try, four penalties and two conversions.
Albion’s other points that day came from tries by Colin Stewart – his first for the club – Richard Oxley and Tom Hayes.
Graham Dawe’s side were unbeaten and sitting pretty at the top of Division One when they last went to Otley.
This time they go having not won a league game on their travels for nearly a year and on the back of two defeats.
Although Otley have yet to win this season since their promotion back into the second tier of English rugby they did come very close to beating the Cornish Pirates on their last outing at Cross Green and with non-stop rain in Yorkshire this week, conditions could be tough this Saturday.
Albion, though, will take heart from their second half performance against London Welsh last Saturday.
Yet they will know they will need to play like that for 80 minutes in West Yorkshire if they are to put an end to their travel sickness.
Albion’s record at Cross Green under Graham Dawe is not bad.
They have travelled their six times since 2002 and won four times.
Their first visit under Dawe came on November 9 2002 for a Powergen Cup fourth round tie.
Albion ran in five tries with three coming in the last 10 minutes to win 37-25 and book a fifth round tie with Orrell at Beacon Park.
Albion’s tries that day came from Pat Sykes, who joined up with the England Under-21 squad straight after that game, Jon Fabian (2), Andy Matchett and Danny Thomas.
Four weeks later Albion found themselves back at Cross Green for a league game and this time Dawe’s team ran out 40-21 winners, with Nigel Simpson scoring one of the tries of the season when he ran through nearly the entire Otley team to score one of two touchdowns. Albion’s other try scorers in that league win, which came on bitterly cold day, were from Will James and Ross Winney.
It is quite interesting that Albion went to Otley for that league game in December 2002 having narrowly lost three games in a row and a week before entertaining Exeter at home.
This week they also go on the back of some disappointing results and a week before playing Exeter at home.
In the 2003-04 season, Albion had a much tougher game at Otley, eventually winning 29-24 in January.
That game was memorable for some interesting referee decisions, which saw three penalty tries – two to Albion and one in the opening minutes to Otley - two sin-binnings and an incredible 11 minutes of injury-time, which Albion had to survive with only a five-point lead.
The turning point of that game came when Albion somehow stole an Otley five-metre line-out deep in injury time. Otley, with their powerful pack, and earlier scored two tries from line-outs.
As well as the two penalty tries, Albion scored further touchdowns from Lee Robinson and Pat Sykes to claim the bonus point to stay fourth in the table with Otley sixth.
Yet after that visit, Albion suffered two defeats at Cross Green.
They lost 24-17 on April 23, 2005 in a game which will be remembered for the strange sending off of Alfie Tooala. Everyone assumed Tooala had been yellow carded for a late tackle, but it turned out referee Tim Beddow had shown in red. Albion were unhappy because earlier in the game Otley’s Ian Shuttleworth had only been shown yellow for a sickening high tackle on Jon Fabian that prevented him scoring. Albion were awarded a penalty try but Shuttleworth’s tackle was far later than Tooala’s.
That defeat cost Albion the chance of finishing second in Division One. As well as the penalty try, Albion’s other scores came from tries Stuart Friswell and Martin Schusterman and a Matt Carrington conversion.
Albion had an equally frustrating result when they went there on March 11, 2006. Albion lost 15-14 with Otley’s controversial winning score from Justin Wring coming deep in injury-time after Graham Dawe’s side had led 14-5 at the break thanks a Schusterman try and three penalties from Nick Defty.
There have been some memorable games for good and bad reasons between Albion and Otley at Cross Green over the years, but what will Saturday bring?
Any supporters making the 700-mile round trip to Cross Green, which is overlooked by the famous Otley Chevin, are advised to take a warm waterproof coat and maybe hat and gloves as well as the weather forecast is not good for the weekend.

Good game but disappointing result

2008-09-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

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.

Away day blues

2008-09-23T02:04:00.000-07:00

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!

Did more than one record go?

2008-09-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Milestones against Manchester

2008-09-12T12:05:00.001-07:00

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?

Another winning start

2008-08-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-12T03:37:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Welcome to The Gunner

2008-07-31T02:58:00.001-07:00

WELCOME to the first of a new column dedicated to Albion and rugby union.
Older Albion supporters may remember the regular Gunner columns in the old Football Herald.
For decades The Gunner had a comment piece in the Saturday evening sports paper, alongside the likes of Flagstaff, who wrote on Devonport Services, and The Pilgrim, covering Argyle.
On a Saturday, The Gunner would look at topical issues relating to Albion, Devon and rugby in general, as well as occasionally taking a trip down memory lane.
We thought it was time The Gunner's regular rugby column was reborn - albeit in a new form.
Modern technology may be constantly moving forward, but why not use it to keep history alive?
Albion and The Herald have plenty of history and hopefully this column can be a link to that.
A search through The Gunner's columns between the war and the 1970s and you will see that certain issues constantly kept appearing - whether there should be competitive rugby, the impact of television, rugby union's battle to keep pace with football and rugby league, whether attractive rugby should be forsaken for winning rugby and how to improve club finances.
And when you look at it basically not too much has changed.
The rugby league issue may have virtually disappeared with the introduction of professional rugby union, but the others topics are still big talking points, albeit with the argument over whether there should be competitive rugby having been replaced with whether there should be promotion and relegation.
It is interesting to note that rugby league has once again decided to do away with promotion and relegation.
The Super League has opted to introduce a franchise system and earlier this week the 14 successful sides were confirmed. Those lucky 14 will now be guaranteed Super League rugby for three years.
Rugby league did away with promotion to the top flight for a short spell in the mid 1990s when they first launched the Sky-backed Super League and decided to have a team from London and Paris in it at the expense of the likes of long-standing and historical clubs like Widnes, Salford, Featherstone, Keighley and Batley.
Although the top flight clubs benefitted, it more or less killed the lower leagues. Supporters of national league sides lost interest because they knew their sides could never reach the top flight.
Hopefully, rugby union will not follow rugby league's example on the franchise system and get rid of promotion and relegation, although you would not bet against it.
It seems almost certain now that plans for two 12 team professional leagues will happen in rugby union, with a Premiership One and Premiership Two (didn't we have that once before!).
But all the current clubs in Division One are now panicking as they desperately don't want to be one of the four teams that are going to have to 'drop out'.
Which brings us back to the issue of finances.
There have been interesting stories coming out from both Albion and Exeter in the last few days in relation to finances.
Both Devon's leading two clubs, who have invested in new stadiums in the last few years, have been looking at ways to increase finances.
Exeter have announced a 'significant' rise in ticket prices (they are set to be the most expensive club to watch in Division One in 2008-09), whereas Albion have proposed a new share issue to raise extra funds.
Premiership rugby does not come cheap, especially with the strict ground criteria, but both Albion and Exeter have shown by investing in facilities, that they do want to be among the country's elite.
It will be interesting to see if Exeter's increase in prices has any affect on their attendances this coming season and whether many Albion supporters take up the club's offer to become a shareholder in the club.
However, far more interesting though will be how the pair get on this coming season.
The big kick-off is getting ever closer.
Supporters can now count down in days rather than weeks or months to the start of the National Division One season.
Every year it does seem like the summers get shorter.
At least rugby does have a longer break than football, although not much longer this year with the rugby season officially starting in August (can anyone else remember that happening before? They only used to be the odd trial match or pre-season friendlies in August)
But at least we have the Olympics before that.
Rugby may not be in it, but it is definitely worth watching, especially this year with so many Plymothians in it.
Some city success in Beijing may just offer inspiration to the rest of Plymouth's sporting fraternity.
Success does seem to breed success. Remember that year when Albion, Argyle and Raiders all won league titles in the same season?
What wouldn't all Plymothians give for another year like that?
Anyway, if you are interested in a nice little Albion Olympic-related story then look out for a future installment of The Gunner.