London Welsh 22
Plymouth Albion 10

Albion make the trip to Old Deer Park and  chance to continue Albion's come back after hold Pirates to a draw at Camborne. With Warriors only just around the corner playing London Scottish and two coaches of Albion supporters there were many Plymouthians in the Richmond on an overcast Saturday in April.

The last away match and and a must win to have any chance of finishing 7th in the league. The weather was not doing either side any favours with a gusty breeze and the occasional shower it was cold for the time of year.

6 minutes in and the hosts were in the lead after Albion managed to keep their pack from going over the line the passed the ball back to in front of the posts and London Welsh's Mathew Jones kicked his first drop goal of the season. It was also the 9th drop goal scored against Albion, more than any other team!

In the 15th minute LW kicked the ball forward and it bounced in our in goal area. Despite there being two Albion players around they were unable to ground the ball allowing the Welsh attack to jump on the ball and claim the 5 points along with 2 for the conversion to take them into a 10 - 0 lead.

Just 5 minutes later Albion were on the front foot and with the driving maul collapsing short of the line Simon Etheredge was yellow carded and the Albion support would have been forgiven in thinking that they were going to get some points back.

Unfortunately this was not going to be the case.  They spent a good 4 minutes trying to get over the hosts try line with a number of rucks and mauls but were unable to get the ball much past the 5 metre line. The ball was lost to LW how then managed to clear the ball well out of their 22.

LW were back in Albion's 22 and with a penalty advantage in their back pocket their inside centre Paul Mackey broke through our defence to touch down under the posts. The conversion brings the score to 17 - 0.

Scott Zimmerman had been on the ground for a few minutes before the try but Albion restarted the game with only 14 fit players match the same as they had against Northampton in the cup match a few weeks ago. Gareth Evans did get on the pitch but it must have been 2 or 3 minutes later.

With London Welsh back to full strength Albion had lost any opportunity to take if the man advantage and the final 10 minutes of the half were uneventful. 

Albion had come back from 15 points down and some may have expected a different side to come out of the dressing room after the change around but although there seemed to have stepped up the pace a small amount it was not going to be enough.

After a number of infringements by the hosts in front of their posts Albion were awarded a penalty 7 metres out which Ross kicked.  17 - 3.  I thought that this might be the start of the come back But after London Welsh bounced back with interest, an unconverted try the heart sinks.

63 minutes into the match and Albion finally bring on three subs Chris Lowrie, Richard Oxley and Darren Ritchie. With Nigel Cane off Ed Lewsey moves to his preferred position and for me his natural and better position.  He did not leave it long before taking the ball off the back of the maul that had failed to cross the line to take on 3 defenders himself and touch down by the side of the posts. Picking up his 7th league try of the season.

Neither side added any further points to the scoreboard and Albion continued their performance in the league.

The players were not happy with their performance and came off the pitch without a huddle or tour of the ground. To their credit they stopped for a group of younger supporters, including our own ball boys for a photo opportunity.

Albion need to make a step up and find a good team performance against Newbury next week to avoid finishing in the lowest place ever in National League 1 since Graham Dawe became DoR.

Team: Nat Saumi, Ed Lewsey, Arran Cruickshanks, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ross Laidlaw, Nigel Cane, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Tom Hayes, Jannie Bornman, Mike Denbee, Kyle Marriott Replacements: Darren Ritchie(used), Emyr Lewis(used), Daniel Hawkes, Gareth Evans(used), Richard Oxley(used), Brett Stroud(used), Chris Lowrie(used)

Scorers :- Tries Ed Lewsey Penalties Ross Laidlaw Conversions Ross Laidlaw

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