Bees 24-13 Plymouth
By Elliott Josypenko
September 12 2005
After the carnival atmosphere of last week's occasion, it was almost nice to get back down to the serious business and back to a slightly colder, slightly damper Sharmans Cross Road in front of just a few short of 500.
By Elliott Josypenko
September 12 2005
After the carnival atmosphere of last week's occasion, it was almost nice to get back down to the serious business and back to a slightly colder, slightly damper Sharmans Cross Road in front of just a few short of 500.
Pertemps Bees 24-13 Plymouth Albion
After the carnival atmosphere of last week's occasion, it was almost nice to get back down to the serious business and back to a slightly colder, slightly damper Sharmans Cross Road in front of just a few short of 500.
Bees had lost Captain Ed Orgee giving scrum half Paul Knight a chance to take control of the team. On the bench the Bees welcomed two of the Gloucester players, back row Will Matthews and hooker Rob Elloway.
Bees were always going to be up against it playing against a very large professional set of forwards and after 80 minutes there was no doubting which had come off better.
After three minutes Tim Walsh dropped a long distance goal to give Bees the early momentum. This was definitely the highlight of his kicking game, it all appeared to go down-hill from here. Full back Jon Fabian equallised from a very odd penalty decision.
Referee Mr Wigglesworth had a pretty dreadful match on the whole. The Plymouth side consistently blocked (and even tackled!) players off the ball and neither the referee nor the touchjudge batted an eyelid. Mr Wigglesworth clearly needed to be introduced to the knock-on rule. In the first twenty minutes Paul Knight dropped the ball forward from catching a kick and cleared the ball to touch almost in disgust at himself. The referee however hadn't noticed and Bees profited from a splendid clearance. This was repeated twice in the second half as people dropped the slippery ball.
The Plymouth tactics were clear from the off. Kick to touch and set up a rolling maul, much like we did three seasons ago. Albion fans are not very pleased with their tag "Thirteen man maul", acquired in a match against Bristol last season when they did actually have thirteen men in a rolling maul. So when achieving a penalty, the Bees knew exactly what was required defensively. Defend it they did, until the referee judged the Bees pack to have pulled it down. So take two and hooker Stu Friswell managed to collapse over the line to get a lead. The Albion however didn't appear to have any second plan and the strong Bees pack thwarted their plan well.
Bees levelled about 10 minutes later as a well placed kick took the Bees to within yards of their "end zone" (given the start of the gridiron season) and after stealing a lineout, Tim Walsh shimmied past his opposite man in an almost traditional move to run in under the posts. He then managed to convert his own try. 10-10
From then on in, there was a complete change in the match. Plywood were dreadful. They didn't have anything in the backs and were completely one-dimensional. How they won the "Red Card Derby" I'll never know.
On the other hand, the Bees were stunning. This was comfortably the best defence I've seen in a while. The first up tackling was phenomenal particularly from the back row and the inside backs and in going forward our backs were electric. If only they could get the ball to the speedster Tom Beim! The Bees forwards going forward were equally good, although not quite as electric. Every man in that 8 made yards going forward, in particular Cae Trayhern and Tu Tamarua.
Jon Fabian took Plymouth to 13 points and a three point lead after 65 minutes but that was all they managed and from then on in it was the Ryan Lamb show.
Lamby is clearly a different class to most of those people on the pitch and I wholeheartedly agree with Phil's view that some day he will play for England. His kicking was accurate and his running was stylish.
Firstly he put a wonderful grubber kick in after wrongfooting the defence which Beim managed to run in to open his scorebook. Shortly after that, he again wrong footed a tired Devon defence and cut inside. He could have gone all the way through after beating two tackles, but decided to offload to his Gloucester team mate Will Matthews.
There was another positive which I forgot to mention earlier. Today was the debut for Tim Vennor on the microphone. Tim had some great ideas for this and music (although rather odd choices) was played during long breaks and before the game. The only negative with this was his reading out of the team which left more than a little to be desired. Remember to practice a couple of times before you go "on air" Tim!
Next up to Oh Dear Park which has been a serious bogey ground for the Bees of late.
After the carnival atmosphere of last week's occasion, it was almost nice to get back down to the serious business and back to a slightly colder, slightly damper Sharmans Cross Road in front of just a few short of 500.
Bees had lost Captain Ed Orgee giving scrum half Paul Knight a chance to take control of the team. On the bench the Bees welcomed two of the Gloucester players, back row Will Matthews and hooker Rob Elloway.
Bees were always going to be up against it playing against a very large professional set of forwards and after 80 minutes there was no doubting which had come off better.
After three minutes Tim Walsh dropped a long distance goal to give Bees the early momentum. This was definitely the highlight of his kicking game, it all appeared to go down-hill from here. Full back Jon Fabian equallised from a very odd penalty decision.
Referee Mr Wigglesworth had a pretty dreadful match on the whole. The Plymouth side consistently blocked (and even tackled!) players off the ball and neither the referee nor the touchjudge batted an eyelid. Mr Wigglesworth clearly needed to be introduced to the knock-on rule. In the first twenty minutes Paul Knight dropped the ball forward from catching a kick and cleared the ball to touch almost in disgust at himself. The referee however hadn't noticed and Bees profited from a splendid clearance. This was repeated twice in the second half as people dropped the slippery ball.
The Plymouth tactics were clear from the off. Kick to touch and set up a rolling maul, much like we did three seasons ago. Albion fans are not very pleased with their tag "Thirteen man maul", acquired in a match against Bristol last season when they did actually have thirteen men in a rolling maul. So when achieving a penalty, the Bees knew exactly what was required defensively. Defend it they did, until the referee judged the Bees pack to have pulled it down. So take two and hooker Stu Friswell managed to collapse over the line to get a lead. The Albion however didn't appear to have any second plan and the strong Bees pack thwarted their plan well.
Bees levelled about 10 minutes later as a well placed kick took the Bees to within yards of their "end zone" (given the start of the gridiron season) and after stealing a lineout, Tim Walsh shimmied past his opposite man in an almost traditional move to run in under the posts. He then managed to convert his own try. 10-10
From then on in, there was a complete change in the match. Plywood were dreadful. They didn't have anything in the backs and were completely one-dimensional. How they won the "Red Card Derby" I'll never know.
On the other hand, the Bees were stunning. This was comfortably the best defence I've seen in a while. The first up tackling was phenomenal particularly from the back row and the inside backs and in going forward our backs were electric. If only they could get the ball to the speedster Tom Beim! The Bees forwards going forward were equally good, although not quite as electric. Every man in that 8 made yards going forward, in particular Cae Trayhern and Tu Tamarua.
Jon Fabian took Plymouth to 13 points and a three point lead after 65 minutes but that was all they managed and from then on in it was the Ryan Lamb show.
Lamby is clearly a different class to most of those people on the pitch and I wholeheartedly agree with Phil's view that some day he will play for England. His kicking was accurate and his running was stylish.
Firstly he put a wonderful grubber kick in after wrongfooting the defence which Beim managed to run in to open his scorebook. Shortly after that, he again wrong footed a tired Devon defence and cut inside. He could have gone all the way through after beating two tackles, but decided to offload to his Gloucester team mate Will Matthews.
There was another positive which I forgot to mention earlier. Today was the debut for Tim Vennor on the microphone. Tim had some great ideas for this and music (although rather odd choices) was played during long breaks and before the game. The only negative with this was his reading out of the team which left more than a little to be desired. Remember to practice a couple of times before you go "on air" Tim!
Next up to Oh Dear Park which has been a serious bogey ground for the Bees of late.
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