BEDFORD

This Weekend

v
B Blues v Albion
Saturday 15 November
K.O. 3 pm
also
Albion Girls U15 &U18
Sun 2pm
and
Warriors v Redruth
Sun 3:15pm

 

Graham Dawe speaks ahead of the RFU meeting to decide on the way forward for level 2 rugby. 

Friday is a big day for the future of the game at level 2 and below and as soon as I hear of any decisions made at head office I will pass them onto you.

As for Saturday Abion will be facing the trip to north of London without their two Canadian players who are in action against Wales on  Friday night. Sean has been dropped to the bench with Justin still in the starting line-up. 

The big questions this week are - Is Liam back to match fitness? Will Geoff Griffiths be available? Will Wihan remain in the squad?

Questions that we are unlikely to have answered until we arrive in Bedford!

The Travel club has a full minibus and I will be ready with my camera only my second away trip this season so lets hope that is a good omen.

 

The Warriors have a fixture booked for Sunday afternoon against Redruth and it will be a chance for Matt Newman to regain his starting position providing he does not play a mayor role in the match against Bedford. Warriors have had a mixed season and sit at the bottom of the Canterbury Shield but do have a number of games in hand.

 

 

BEDFORD BLUES

Albion travel almost 300 miles to meet the Bedford ‘Blues’ at Goldington Road, average gates at the blues are 2457, about a thousand short of Albion’s average. Albion Supporters Travel Club has a few supporters travelling, so maybe a bit of support from the ‘Alllbion choir’ will help. Tickets at the Blues for ground is £14 adult £12 Concession, or if you want the stand is £18 adult £16 Concession. Last Time CD went to the ground the pitch sloped to one corner – looked like the one corner was about 4 foot below the rest of the pitch (unless that was the apples affecting judgement)

Last week Bedford faced an away game against Leeds, having lost to the Pirates the previous week, Bedford were hoping for a win. At half time the blues were losing by 14 to 3, however Leeds having not lost any match so far this season, it was inevitable that Bedford would be beaten as well. The final score 19 to 8. The blues sit a two places above Albion and hope to keep it that way, on a lighter note the blues players have recently released a calendar in time for Christmas, so the female fans can have a very merry year of the blues. 

Details of the team selection for the blues is not available, but players to look out for : 

Mouritz Botha (second row), whos honours are playing for east midlands, and has scored three tries, 

Brendon Burke (fullback) who has honours of the Irish Under 19 sevens, and has scored 2 tries, but has also picked up a yellow. 

Ian Davey (wing) who has honours of England under 18 team, and has scored 10 tries, 

Brad Davies (Fly half/centre), who has honours of playing for Gloucester and Albion, and has scored a drop goal in the first match of the season.

Karl Dickson (scrum half) who's honours are playing for the North of England, and has scored 4 tries, 

Ollie Dodge (Wing) who has honours of England under 20’s, but has also picked up a yellow this season. 

Gregor Gillanders (second row) who has honours of England under 20’s, and has scored three tries, although he has picked up 2 yellow cards so far this season. 

Sacha Harding (Back row) who has honours of playing for England students, but has picked up a yellow card this season. 

Will Harries (Full back) who has honours of playing for Wales 7’s, and has scored 4 tries, 

Mike Howard (second row), who has scored 2 tries, and has also picked up a yellow card. 

Rory McKay (no 8) who has honours of playing for Scotland 7’s, and has scored a try, but picked up a yellow. 

Ryan Owen (wing/fullback/centre) who has honours of Wales under 18’s, and has scored two tries, 

James Pitchard (fullback/ wing/outside/centre) who has honours of playing for Canada, and has scored 2 tries, 22 conversions and 16 penalties but he is on duty with our 2 so will not be featuring.

Dan Richmond (Hooker) is the captain of the team, 

Liam Roberts, (centre) who has honours of playing for Wales under 21’s and 7’s, and has scored a try, 

Paul Tupai (lock/back row), who has honours of playing for Samoa, has picked up a yellow, 

Billy Twelvetrees(centre), who has scored 8 tries, converted 6, and scored 7 penalties, 

Ian Vass (scrum half/fly half), who did play in the premership, and has scored one try,

Sam Walsh (loose head prop), who has picked up a yellow.
For those travelling up, it should be an interesting game, 

 

CD’s prediction – evens (again)
 possible win by the home side by 2 points 

National League One Data

League Table
		P	W	D	L	F	A	dif	TF	TA	BP	Pnts
1	Leeds	11	11	0	0	450	111	339	65	11	8	52
2	Chiefs	11	10	0	1	433	137	296	59	15	8	48
3	Nott'ham	11	9	0	2	318	175	143	43	20	6	40
4	Welsh	11	8	0	3	239	191	48	27	20	4	36
5	B Blues	11	7	0	4	340	153	187	43	15	6	34
6	Knights	11	6	1	4	295	216	79	33	24	6	32
7	Albion	11	6	1	4	247	207	40	27	23	4	30
8	Pirates	11	6	1	4	250	195	55	31	20	3	29
9	Moseley	11	5	0	6	264	283	-19	33	38	6	26
10	Cov	11	5	0	6	213	250	-37	28	30	4	24
11	Titans	11	5	1	5	315	304	11	40	37	5	23
12	Esher	11	3	0	8	162	338	-176	19	44	2	14
13	N Blues	11	3	0	8	134	318	-184	15	42	2	14
14	Tigers	11	2	0	9	179	444	-265	22	61	2	10
15	Otley	11	0	0	11	149	394	-245	16	54	5	5
16	Man	11	0	0	11	167	439	-272	15	62	4	4

ADJUSTMENTS

Nottingham -2 points
Nottingham have had two league points deducted for including an un-registered player in their match squad for the match against Bedford played on 26th October.

Rotherham Titans -4 points
Back row forward Barry Jacobsz effective registration with the RFU expired on 18th Sept 2008 yet the player was included in Rotherham's match squad for 2 matches.

 

Points by type & Discipline Record
Team	Tries	Cons	Con Rate	Pens	Drop goals	Pen try	Yell	Red
B Blues	43/15	28/12	65	22/18	1/0	0/0	10/5	0/1
Albion	27/22	18/13	67	24/20	2/2	0/1	4/9	0/0

This table shows the for and against for each team. eg Tries 74/17 is 74 tries scored and 17 conceded. Con Rate is the percentage tries converted.

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NL1 Fixtures

Saturday 15 November
Bedford Blues	v	Plymouth Albion
Coventry	v	Otley
Manchester	v	London Welsh
Moseley	v	Doncaster Knights
Newbury Blues	v	Exeter Chiefs
Sedgley Tigers	v	Esher
Sunday 16 November
Cornish Pirates	v	Leeds Carnegie
Nottingham	v	Rotherham Titans

---

 

Side by side
Gate 2457 avg 2986 max	Gate 3007 avg 6871 max
Form home l w w l w w away l l w w w	Form home w w w l l w w away d w l l
Best home game 62 - 0 Man	Best home game 47 - 6 Man
Worst away game Leeds 19 - 8	Worst away game Nott'ham 43 - 19
Most points in a match 20 William Twelvetrees B Blues 62 - 0 Man	Most points in a match 16 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 17 Moseley
Most tries in a match 4 William Twelvetrees B Blues 62 - 0 Man	Most tries in a match 2 Justin Mensah-Cover Albion 31 - 7 Tigers
Recent results Leeds 19 - 8 B Blues B Blues 6 - 26 Pirates Nott'ham 15 - 7 B Blues B Blues 53 - 7 Tigers B Blues 37 - 12 Otley Cov 3 - 26 B Blues B Blues 23 - 26 Chiefs Welsh 23 - 32 B Blues B Blues 53 - 12 N Blues	Recent results Albion 21 - 18 Knights Albion 31 - 7 Tigers Titans 10 - 10 Albion Albion 26 - 17 Moseley Albion 14 - 41 Chiefs Otley 16 - 31 Albion Albion 24 - 25 Welsh N Blues 19 - 11 Albion Albion 47 - 6 Man
TRIES 10 Ian Davey 8 William Twelvetrees 4 Karl Dickson Will Harries 3 Mouritz Botha Gregor Gillanders 2 Brendan Burke Michael Howard Ryan Owen James Pritchard 1 Rory McKay Liam Roberts Ian Vass	TRIES 4 Justin Mensah-Cover 3 Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau Tom Jarvis 2 Geoff Griffiths Wayne Sprangle 1 Mike Denbee Jannie Du Toit Liam Gibson Kieran Hallett Ryan Hopkins Greg Nicholls Martin Rice
Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points James Pritchard 22 - 16 92 William Twelvetrees 6 - 6 30 Brad Davis - 1 - 3	Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Kieran Hallett 13 2 16 80 Ross Laidlaw 5 - 8 34
Discipline SinBin Brendan Burke Ollie Dodge Gregor Gillanders (2) Sacha Harding Michael Howard Rory McKay Paul Tupai William Twelvetrees Sam Walsh	Discipline SinBin Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau Sean-Micheal Stephen

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Ladies and Girls

The Ladies have a weekend off to recover from the 24 - 5 loss at Bath in Championship South. Whilst Bath started well Albion thought that they had a chance at half time when they were still within striking distance at 12 -5.

However the referee was forced to retire early in the second half and a volunteer from the partisan crowd volunteered to continue the match, had she not the match would have to be replayed. 

Whilst the replacement was qualified to the relevant level she had no experience at this level and after a number of injuries stoppages, and two disputed tries for Bath the teams decided to call it a day with more than 10 minutes still left on the clock.

Both sides agreed to abandoning the match for safety reasons but since the match had gone past the three quarter mark it is believed that the result will stand.

Albion's only try was made by England scrum-half, Georgie Rozario, who made a break in the first half from the back of a breakdown side stepping a number of defenders before off loading the ball to her captain Rachel Tucker who put the ball down in the corner. 

Sunday will see their first fixture at Brickfields for girls when they play hosts to Taunton and Cullompton. The under 15s will be playing a round Robin style event on the top pitch. The first match expected to be between Albion and Taunton and will kick off at 2pm.

It is planned that the final match will be refereed by Albion's Jess Veacock, this will be her last assessed match before she hers if she will pass into the thankless ranks of officials. That is after she has played her part on the main pitch

The senior girls side have been handed the privilege of playing on the main pitch ahead of the Westcountry Warriors match against Redruth.  The under 18 side has limited numbers and will therefore be making up their squad from members of the other teams and will also kick off at 2pm.

A bucket collection for the BBC Children in need is planned during and after the matches.

 

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