Plymouth Albion 28
Waterloo 5

Albion field a young side to take on a Waterloo side that also had a number of first choice players on the side lines. 

Five players see themselves on Albion's starting line-up for the first time (Ed King, Bryn Jenkins, Ben Rowntree, Dave Delaney and James Owen) and another (Jake Childs) earned himself a debut when he came on from the bench.  The match also saw the first appearance of Chairman of Rugby, Graham Dawe, playing first team rugby

Within the first two minutes Sila Va'Enuku broke the line and made a run across the field from left to right before passing to Arran Cruickshanks who passed in again but an infringement gave a free ball opportunity to Albion which was not taken and a penalty awarded. The kick by Dave Delaney just clipped the left hand post and came back into play.

Sila had another opportunity on 5 minutes when he kicked the ball over the first line of defence only for a Waterloo player to catch the ball, calling mark before landing prone on the grass.  The mark was awarded and Waterloo used their second get out of jail free card. Albion only had to wait a minute more to get on the scoreboard when Chris Lowrie broke through from the 22 to be stopped a few metres short and a maul formed before going over  with James scoring on his first start ever for Albion. Dave made no mistake adding the extras.

Before 15 minutes were up Nigel Cane picked the ball off the back of a ruck 10 metres from the Waterloo line and kicked the ball between the posts for the first Albion drop kick this season. In fact it has been since 3rd September 2005 since a drop goal has been scored by Albion when Mat Albina and Ed Barnes had one each in the 35 - 13 win over Exeter. Dave added another three points when Albion were awarded a penalty 45 metres out.

Waterloo made an attack on the Albion line around the 25 minute mark and and kicked the ball beyond the defensive line, the ball dropped short of the line and bounced awkwardly before bouncing over the whitewash. It looked as though the wrong footed Jon Fabian was not going to get to the ball before Waterloo but at the last second he turned and fell on the ball for a 22 drop out.

At just gone 30 minutes Albion were being held short of the line when Albion added men to the maul and with 24 feet moved the maul towards the line.  When the maul was pulled down the referee had no hesitation and ran straight to the posts to award a penalty try which Dave converted without any trouble and bringing the score to 20 - 0.

Albion were a man up for the last 4 minutes of the half after the Waterloo hooker was sin binned. Arran Cruickshanks looked as though he was going to pick up a try as he forced his way through the Waterloo defence while the referee was playing advantage but the he turned his back on the play and awarded the penalty.

The first half had gone Albion's way and they looked well on top going into the changing rooms with their heads held high.

Albion started the second half with a man up but did not take any points during this time. Within seconds of the Waterloo going back to 15 men Scott Zimmerman was shown the yellow card for pulling the maul down. At the next scrum Martin Rice came on for Ben Rowntree to complete the front row. Again no points were scored during the sin binning and at the end of the ten minutes Jake Childs came on in place of Ben to make his debut.

Within 2 minutes of going back to full strength Dave Delaney takes the kick ahead into the corner from the halfway line  for Sila to tap the ball before picking it up and scoring in the corner. When Waterloo were picked up for playing on the ground 10 metres from their own line Dave Delaney made the tie certain by adding three points.

With Ed Barnes already on for Nic Sestaret the final two substitutions were made with 7 minutes still on the clock Graham Dawe and Martin Rice came on for James Owen and Scott Zimmerman. 

Waterloo had the consultation of a try in the last few minutes as the ball was passed wide to the right Chris Parrott saw the opportunity and dived through a gap to score their only points of the match.

A good match that was played under a good spirit and gave a number of fringe players the opportunity to show what they can do with an Albion shirt on their back. It also saw a reversal of rolls with Danny Thomas and Tom Hayes on water duties.

Team: Nat Saumi, Jon Fabian, Arran Cruickshanks, Sila Va'Enuku, Nic Sestaret, David Delaney, Nigel Cane, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Scott Zimmerman, Ed King, Bryn Jenkins, Ben Rowntree, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie Replacements: Matt Newman(used), Ed Barnes(used), Regardt van Eyk, Martin Rice(used), Graham Dawe(used), Federico Genoud, Jake Childs(used)

Scorers :- Tries James Owen, Sila Va'Enuku,  Penalty Try Penalties 2x David Delaney Drop Goals Nigel Cane Conversions 2x David Delaney

Sin Bin Scott Zimmerman

Rest of the 4th round

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