This Weekend

v
Albion v Esher
Saturday 22 November
K.O. 3 pm
also
Ladies v Henley
and
Warriors v Devon U20
both on Sunday
(KO times tbc)

Albion plan to make 6 changes to the starting line up this Saturday with Geoff Griffiths and Liam Gibson both making comebacks. Matt Hopper is due to make his debut for the full side after giving good performances for the Warriors against Combined Services and Redruth.

Arran Cruickshanks drops back to the bench pushing Wihan out of the squad. With Ricey out injured Tim Mathias will make a come back and will start on the bench, this is just for one week.

With Gareth Evans also dropping to the bench Albion are likely to start with 2 hookers and 2 props on the bench!

Ross Allan, who had a good match last week, is also out on the weekend that his family are visiting Brickfields.

This will be an interesting match. Will Albion play the full 80 minutes unlike last week when they seemed to stop whilst Arthur was off the pitch.

ESHER

Esher make the 200 mile journey from Moseley Road. Esher have only won 2 games this season (against Newbury and Manchester) and are currently 12th, a few below Albion.

Last week Esher were away to Sedgley ‘tigers’, in the first half Esher looked like it was going to be an easy victory, with 21 points to the Tigers 5, but in the second half the Tigers roared and in a close game Sedgley won by one point 27 to Esher’s 26, this is the fifth time in a row that Esher have lost.

Esher play in Black shirts with Amber trim, with black shorts and socks, although they have been known to play in their ‘change strip’ of red shirts with black trim. Esher’s mission is to compete successfully in national first division rugby, whilst maintaining ‘grass roots’ rugby.

Esher's home gate averages at 713, well below that of Albion, so there may be little travelling support for them, but I am sure the Fortress will give the Esher team and travelling support a warm welcome to the Fortress.

Players to look out for are:

Dougie Flockhart, who has only been with the club since last year, has scored 5 tries for his club this season. If you think you know that name from somewhere else – he was in the Barbarians team that the remembrance match on 4th Nov, where he scored 2 tries, he was playing against his team mate Maccu Koroyaidi, who as a lance Corporal was playing for the Combined Services, both will hopefully make the journey to Brickfields.

James Hayter, who only joined the club in July this year, has two tries to his name.

Sam Sticher, who also joined the club in July this year, has previously played for Leeds and Wasps, has scored two tries this season.

G Lowe, Lee starling, Sebastian Stegmann who have each scored 2 tries.

Matteo Barbini, Mike Blakeburn, F Waterhouse, Clouston have one try each.

Neil Hallett who has been with the club four years, has this season scored 3 tries, 11 conversions and 9 penalties to his name, so if he gets a chance to kick the ball over the posts he will take it.

Sabatian Jewell also has 2 tries, 2 conversions and 6 penalties to his name.

David Slemen who previously played for harlequins, has kicked one conversion.

So it’s a choice of 3 kickers for Esher, think they will definitely bring Neil Hallett down with them. Although decipline seems to play a big part in their games, apart from Neil Hallets 2 yellows, Alex Ayling, Matteo Barbini, Simon Goldsmith, Colm Hannon and Alex Rogers each have a yellow to their names.

Although I think Esher will give Albion a good game, they have lost 5 games in a row and I can’t see a win for them this time - 

Ciders prediction 
Albion win by 7 points and possibly a bonus point for Albion as well

Visiting Brickfields

If you haven't been to Brickfields before you will be in for a friendly welcome from the club and the home support.

The ground is growing into a great stadium with plenty of food and beverage outlets to suit all comers. You can get anything from a chocolate bar to a four course sit down meal.

Click to see more details on the ground

Halftime Entertainment.

Weather forecast

Current forecast is cloudy max temp 9^oC with north westerly winds up to 20mph.

National League One Data

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.

Next Fixtures

Side by side
Gate 3007 avg 6871 max (up 4% on last season)	Gate 713 avg 1124 max (down 22% on last season)
Form home w w w l l w w away l d w l l	Form home l l w l l l away l l l w l w
Best home game 47 - 6 Man Worst away game B Blues 37 - 9	Best home game 36 - 19 Man Worst away game Cov 33 - 8
Most points in a match 16 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 17 Moseley	Most points in a match 11 Neil Hallett Esher 36 - 19 Man Tigers 27 - 26 Esher
Most tries in a match 2 Justin Mensah-Cover Albion 31 - 7 Tigers	Most tries in a match 2 Sam Sticher Esher 32 - 59 Titans
Recent results Bedford 37 - 9 Albion 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	Recent results Tigers 27 - 26 Esher Esher 3 - 19 Pirates Moseley 22 - 13 Esher Esher 8 - 52 Leeds Welsh 43 - 19 Esher Esher 36 - 19 Man N Blues 8 - 14 Esher Esher 32 - 59 Titans Cov 33 - 8 Esher
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	TRIES 5 Dougie Flockhart 2 Neil Hallett James Hayter Sabatian Jewell G Lowe Lee Starling Sebastian Stegmann Sam Sticher 1 Matteo Barbini Mike Blakeburn Toby Clouston James Waterhouse
Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Kieran Hallett 13 2 18 86 Ross Laidlaw 5 - 9 37	Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Neil Hallett 11 - 9 49 Sabatian Jewell 2 - 6 22 David Slemen 1 - - 2
Discipline SinBin Arthur Brenton Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau Sean-Micheal Stephen	Discipline SinBin Alex Ayling Matteo Barbini Dougie Flockhart Simon Goldsmith Neil Hallett (2) Colm Hannon Alex Rogers

Ladies and Girls

With a clash of fixtures between them and Devon under 20 the ladies are expected to kick off their early. Sunday sees them host Henley for the first time and will be looking for a good win to turn around their bad form over the past two fixtures.

Henley sit bottom of the table having been relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season. They beat Saracens II two weeks ago but have only scored 32 points in the first 6 matches of the season.

Albion will be looking at continuing their good home form and work well as a team, offloading the ball to make full use of both their forwards and backs.

Georgie Rozario has been handed good news last week when she was informed that she has been selected for the bench for England's match against Ireland just before Christmas.

On hearing the news Rozario said "I am really pleased to be selected for the senior side again, and am looking forward to the challenge of playing away in Ireland." 

This is a positive selection for Rozario in the run up to the spring 6 nations and also looking towards the World Cup in 2010. 

Last week saw the Albion Girls teams host matches at Brickfields giving a good display of rugby with visiting players from Cullompton and Taunton.

The under 15s claimed victory in both their matches 42-5 against Cullompton and 22-0 against Taunton. Tries were awarded to Hannah McArthur(3), Lucy Beighton(2), Tandiwe Wallace-Sims(2), Harriett Inglis, Courtney Gill, Molly Luffman(2), and Kezia Lee. Tandiwe Wallace-Sims also picked up two conversions.

Most impressive players were awarded to Lydia Gannon and Kezia Lee.

The under 18 team joined with Cullompton but failed to score against Taunton in the 0-26 loss. Both youth sides are in action today as they travel to Barnstaple for round robin matches that will also include Liskeard.

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