Torquay and Nottingham!?

This Weekend
Saturday

Torquay Athletic
V
Westcountry Warriors
KO 3pm

&
v
Nottingham v Albion
Saturday 06 September
K.O. 3 pm

Whilst it is still very early in the season this weekend will could be a telling weekend as to how this season may play out.

If we look at Carnegie, Chiefs, Pirates, Nottingham and Albion the combinations of the first two weekends will give an order to mix that may still be there at the end of the season. All bar Nottingham won their first match of the season although some results seem to be more convincing than others.

Albion, who sit just one place above where they were at the end of last season are set to play Nottingham, who finished 3rd and lost against Leeds last week.

Chiefs, got the bonus point against Esher last week and have now to host Leeds. One of these two promotion hopefuls will come away from Sandy park upset.

Pirates travel to Coventry, this will give a comparison between them selves and the Brickfields outfit. 

Albion have finally released the signing of Jane De Toit but it has been said to be unlikely that he will be playing at Nottingham. I suppose that it is possible that he may turn up to the Torquay match and play 15 minutes or so. I don't think that he would need to be registered to play in a friendly.

According to the Herald our man Trips could be in the squad against Nottingham if Kyle is not cleared fit. There is a similar situation between Alex Davis and Ross Laidlaw. Will these two turn up on Saturday morning and then maybe be told whether they are travelling to Torquay or further a field?

It also seems that Wihan has still not been able to agree terms. A man that has won the hearts of many of the supporters, he will need to consider his own career and pick up a contract from someone soon. He has said that he wants to play for Plymouth, something that the DoR has said in the past is a pre-requirement.

Meanwhile of players that are no longer with Albion. Gully played a full 80 minutes for Pirates, as did Nic for Chiefs. Adam ran out as captain for Titans and scored a try in their win and Brad kicked a drop goal within 7 mins of the start of the season!

Other Fixtures

The Rugby Times expect Coventry to just beat Pirates and Exeter to beat Leeds!
Knights to beat London Welsh and Manchester to go down to Tigers, just missing the bonus point. Away wins at Newbury, Otley and Titans but the save the biggest victory for Nottingham expecting Albion to lose by 12 points.

Recent meetings of the two sides.

Over the past three seasons all but one meeting has resulted in the losing side picking up a bonus point also all but one has gone to the home side.

Nottingham must be favourites going into the match but with a PMA in the team anything is possible.

06 January 08
Nottingham 31
Plymouth Albion 9

Attendance: = 1187

Least said soonest mended!

From what I hear Albion played well in the second half but still failed to score any points apart from the three penalties kicked by Ross Laidlaw.

Team: Emyr Lewis, Liam Gibson, Arran Cruickshanks, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ross Laidlaw, Nigel Cane, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Steve Barretto, Colin Stewart, Mike Lewis, Jannie Bornman, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie Replacements: Ed Lewsey(used), Brad Davies(used), Nat Saumi(used), Scott Zimmerman(used), Richard Oxley(used), Tom Hayes(used), Adam Kettle(used)

Scorers :- Penalties 3x Ross Laidlaw Sin Bin Tim Mathias

22 September 07
Plymouth Albion 19
Nottingham 18

Attendance: = 2408

This was always going to be a close match even though Rugby Times, Rugby Roundup and BetFred were predicting a larger margin.

With most of the points in the match coming from the penalty kick it was the odd point that made the difference. The score went backwards and forwards with Albion going to the change around 12 - 10 up.

This week the replacements started around the hour mark with Bog Colin coming on and Ed Lewsey showed his skill playing the full match and scoring the winning try in the 80th minute.

With Tom Barlow on form the ticked over but after he was replaced late in the match the Green and Whites needed him in the last play of the game when they were awarded a penalty in the centre of the pitch and the kick that would have won them the match went wide.

More ...

Team: Emyr Lewis, Liam Gibson, Arran Cruickshanks, Ross Allen, Nic Sestaret, Ross Laidlaw, Ed Lewsey, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Steve Barretto, Ben Gulliver, Tom Hayes, Chris Lowrie, Jannie Bornman, Adam Kettle Replacements: Matt Newman, Brad Davies(used), Wihan Neethling(used), George Davis(used), Richard Oxley(used), Colin Stewart(used), Kyle Marriott

Scorers :- Tries Ed Lewsey Penalties 4x Ross Laidlaw Conversions Ross Laidlaw Sin Bin Adam Kettle

14 April 07
Plymouth Albion 12
Nottingham 17

Attendance: = 2061

Albion fielded the same team as they had last week against Pirates but the result was very different.

Albion did not come out best from the officials’ decisions and went into the turn around 5 – 10 down. Nottingham certainly deserved to win the first half playing a better game than Albion.

Whilst Albion had a number of chances they were not able to make full use of them but when Regardt van Eyk touched the ball down under the posts before taking his team into the lead by 2 points it looked as though Albion could hold on for a four point win.

It was not to be as a loose pass in the Nottingham 22 gave them the chance to counter attack and although they made heavy work of it they managed to get prop Nigel Hall over the line to touch down between the posts.

The Albion players were visibly gutted with the result and will need to use the disappointment to motivate them going into next weeks match against Bedford if they are not to slip back down the table.

More ...

Team: Nat Saumi, Tom Arscott, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Scott Zimmerman, Mike Lewis, Ben Gulliver, Tom Hayes, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie Replacements: Matt Newman, Sila Va'Enuku, Arran Cruickshanks, Andy Williams(used), Graham Dawe, Gareth Evans(used), Dan Smith(used)

Scorers :- Tries Nic Sestaret Regardt van Eyk Conversions Regardt van Eyk Sin Bin Tim Mathias

22 October 06
Nottingham 14
Plymouth Albion 13

Attendance: = 2272

Albion travel to Meadow lane on a very wet day but come away with just one point and allow Pirates into second place in the league.

No score for Albion in the second half although according to reports there was full comitment and Ed Lewsey thought he was going to get a try before being called back by the ref.

Ex Albion player Tom Barlow kicked the conversions for Nottingham.

2nd loss away from home in a row, Albion will need to do well at Newbury next week to stay in contention at the top of the table.

Team: Wihan Neethling, Ed Lewsey, Nat Saumi, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Martin Rice, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Ben Gulliver, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Tom Hayes Replacements: Arran Cruickshanks(used), David Delaney(used), Jon Fabian(used), Tim Mathias, James Owen(used), Brett Stroud(used), Chris Lowrie(used)

Scorers :- Tries Nigel Cane Penalties 2x Wihan Neethling Conversions Wihan Neethling

21 January 06
Nottingham 21
Plymouth Albion 15

Attendance: = 1011

Team: Luke Arscott, Nat Saumi, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Martin Rice, Stewart Pearl, Scott Zimmerman, Nic Rouse, Brett Luxton, Martin Schusterman, Danny Thomas, Tom Hayes Replacements: Sam Leung Wai(used), Matias Albina(used), Graham Dawe(used), Ryan Hopkins(used), Chris Lowrie(used), Jon Fabian, Brett Stroud

Scorers :- Tries Chris Lowrie Martin Rice Penalties Nat Saumi Conversions Nat Saumi

17 September 05
Plymouth Albion 23
Nottingham 22

Attendance: = 2585

Team: Nick Defty, Jon Fabian, Keni Fisilau, Luke Arscott, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Matias Albina, Martin Rice, Stuart Friswell, Ryan Hopkins, Nic Rouse, Tom Hayes, Martin Schusterman, Danny Thomas, Alfie Tooala Replacements: Tom Arscott, Nigel Cane, Graham Dawe(used), Chris Lowrie, Brett Luxton(used), Regardt van Eyk(used), Scott Zimmerman

Scorers :- Tries Keni Fisilau Luke Arscott Martin Schusterman Penalties 2x Nick Defty Conversions Nick Defty

Sorry no more information this week due to family illness I will try and do better next week.

Also still to come a look back at last season for the Warriors and a look forward for this.

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