Albion 29 Newbury 7

It has taken 55 days to take a league win in 2007 after going the whole of 2006 with a 100% record at home. Was it worth it? Well a win is always worth it and although Albion did not let the Blues cross the line when they were at full strength and they did get the bonus point. However, there were times when I felt that Newbury could have scored and taken the game away from us.

To day saw the return to the first team of Wihan Neethling to the squad albeit on the bench until the clock had run down. Also on the bench returning to the team were Tom Arscott after illness and Gareth Evans after serving his country.

Albion showed moments of speed and energy when they made it pay to get the points. For what ever reason the kicking in open play and for touch was not as good as it has been and this gave the ball to the Blues too many times. 

6 minutes in Tim Matias had a disagreement with the touch judge as he was holding his scrum cap with his flag at the lineout and refusing to give it back until discussions with Rowan Kitt (ref). Just a minute later Albion were handed a penalty in front of the posts for an off side decision and Regardt van Eyk had no problems in taking the points.

The only other points of the half came after 14 minutes when Nat Saumi picks the ball up in his own half and attacks the Newbury defence. He takes  the ball 15 metres into the Newbury half before passing to Nic Sestaret who had switched to the inside who then took the ball into the 22 before the baton was passed to Big Tom Hayes to take the ball over the line for Tom's 4th try of the campaign. Regardt added the extras.

Within a few minutes Newbury were handed their own chance to score points when Nat Saumi was penalised, very quickly, for holding on after going to ground. The kick did not make the try line and Ed Lewsey clears the ball from the 22.

In the last play of the half Albion had a catch and drive opportunity which Newbury held and the ball was passed to Regardt who attempted a drop goal but it was not successful and the ref blew for half time.

Whilst Albion had a 10 point lead at the turn around they were not the same team that were title contenders at the end of 2006. They needed to change up a gear to impress the crowd and show the Blues what they are really made of.  Both sides fielded an unchanged side for the second half with Albion changing from white to green shirts.

The only side that had changed up a gear were Newbury who came out determined to put points on Albion and take the fixture. They spent the first few minutes deep in the Albion half and looked as though they were going to reduce the margin until the ball was passed back to Tom Hayes in the in goal area for him to boot it clear.

Albion did respond and when the ball came out of the ruck on the half way line on Newbury's side Chris Lowrie was there to pounce on the ball which set up the ball for the eventual score that had been long awaited.  The ball was recycled with Keni Fisilau passing the ball out to Federico Genoud before quickly running around to take up a place on the wing. Federico passed the ball back to Keni who took the ball to the 22 before passing the ball outside to Nic Sestaret who ran uninterrupted to the line and then made his way to behind the posts before touching down with a celebration dive and Regardt adding the extras.

16 minutes in Nic has his second try. Nigel Cane picks up the ball from the back of the maul makes to go right before making progress towards the posts. When the maul reforms and Albion push their way over the line with Nic falling on the ball as they cross the line. Regardt again makes easy work of the conversion.

With Tim Mathias off the pitch in the bin, Gareth Evans makes his debut for Albion at the expense of Chris Lowrie. The extra man give Newbury the incentive and make it across the line to score a converted try only 2 minutes into the sin binning. Newbury seem to spend the remaining time of advantage in the Albion 22 but were unable to add any points to the scoreboard.

With only 3 minutes left on the clock of normal time Wihan Neethling and Tom Arscott come on the pitch for Saumi and Cane and just before the 80 minutes are up James Owen comes on for Richard Oxley. With the Newbury Hooker sin binned Albion now have the advantage and Tom Arscott, with probably his first touch of the ball, makes it out of the Albion half with some speed, but not enough to make it to the try line.

When Albion set up a drive move on the left-hand touch line Newbury could not prevent the 12 Albion men pushing over the maul in to the corner and Nic Sestaret picking up his third try of the match and 20th try for the season. With the kick on the 5 metre line Regardt misses his first place kick of the match but it no longer matters as Albion have picked up a win and bonus point.

With Nic sitting on 19 tries he has 7 matches left to beat the all time club record of league tries held jointly be Dan Ward Smith and Lee Robinson at 23.  Whilst Nic will have 4 extra matches than Dan or Lee had he could still do it within the the same number of matches if he reaches 24 by the end of the Mosley home match on 31st March.  

Tom Hayes was selected as Man of the Match. Tom is pictured here with Jim Groves from Bromhead & Co , who was our Match Day Sponsor

Don't forget you can have your say and vote for alllbion man of the match. See the side bar.

It will be interesting to see how many of the team will be taking part in the Army match on Tuesday that I was reliably informed would be a 3:30 kick off, £3 entry.

With Exeter taking the win points against Cornish Pirates Albion sit just 4 points behind them and we can stay on winning form we will pass them by Easter.

It now looks as though there are two races one for top slot between Leeds and Titans with Leeds 8 points ahead but Titans having a game in Hand. Then three with only a few points between them looking for third.  Exeter sit in 6th place just ahead of Bedford. The relegation slots are likely to go to Waterloo and Otley or Moseley

Team: Nat Saumi, Ed Lewsey, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Tim Mathias, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Mike Lewis, Tom Hayes, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Chris Lowrie Replacements: Wihan Neethling(used), Tom Arscott(used), Arran Cruickshanks, James Owen(used), Brett Stroud, Dan Smith, Gareth Evans(used)

Scorers :- Tries 3x Nic Sestaret Tom Hayes Penalties Regardt van Eyk Conversions 3x Regardt van Eyk Sin Bin Tim Mathias

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