Spy in the Camp - London Welsh
By Frank Stormont & Stonehouse
March 19 2009
Albion travel to within 5 miles of the home of rugby on the final weekend of this seasons RBS 6 Nations. Meanwhile Georgie Rozario will be on the pitch 24 hours before, hopefully, as she lines up against Scotland.
March 19 2009
Albion travel to within 5 miles of the home of rugby on the final weekend of this seasons RBS 6 Nations. Meanwhile Georgie Rozario will be on the pitch 24 hours before, hopefully, as she lines up against Scotland.
This Weekend
v 
Welsh
v Albion
Sunday 22 March
K.O. 3 pm
At frustratingly short notice due to their longer run in
the Trophy, London Welsh host Albion this Sunday afternoon at Old
Deer Park, kicking off at 2.30pm. The fixture was postponed at short notice
due to a frozen pitch back in January. All the other fixtures in this rugby
hot spot in SW London (Quins and Twickers are a mile or so down the A316,
London Scottish and Richmond are a stone's throw away across the park) were
shelved the previous day. The RFU man gave the go ahead 24 hours previously,
failing to recognise what was obvious to the considerable experience of the
hosts and the lesser nous of this author. Disappointment for an Albion
squad who had travelled up the previous afternoon and a small, but dedicated
posse of fans who turned about en route.
LW are a club with a great little ground situated in a Royal
Park overlooked by the pagoda in Kew Gardens. They also have a HUGE history
as the spiritual home of Welsh rugby in the capital. They regularly host
prestigious social events for the great and good for the community across
the Severn and the clubhouse is littered with memorabilia of past
international and Lions players. Think Jimmy Peters, but a lot more
recent! Given this immense heritage, the club are slowly coming to terms
with the fact that they are punching below their weight.
The City Boy glamour of Quins and the success of their Irish
counterparts are constant reminders of the untapped potential. Expect to see
a little less LW and a little more "Dragons" as they look to
polish up their marketing in the coming season. They share the ground with a
number of other sports clubs which limits their options for pure
rugby-oriented development. With HM the Queen as landlord the possibilities
for Redrow-style modern stands are remote. Their crowd maxes out at 2000 for
this season, so they won't get rich quick that way. Consequently, Welsh are
also looking at staging some fixtures at Brentford FC (just the other side
of the Thames) to capitalise on what they see as lost revenue when the big
names come knocking. Hard commercial reality is not absent and there is a
keen desire to capitalise on what is a favourite on the ND1 fixture lists.
Us country boys love a trip to "Smoke"! (Josh Lewsey turned up
last year and got some career advice from our own Southway Janner.)
The club were significantly one of the "Quick Six"
who threw their weight behind the Championship/GP2 concept and they are no
strangers to the corridors of power at HQ. If all of this sounds a tad
familiar to Albion fans, it will come as no surprise that they want Prem
status, too. With access to the Welsh community in the capital, there are
obvious playing possibilities for progress from the Welsh Prem to the larger
game in England - just don't turn off the locals by over-emphasing the
"foreign" history.
A glance at the table shows LW a place above Albion with a
game in hand with both clubs trailing the Pirates by a fixture as well. This
will have a major influence on the fixture. Due to our early bath in the
Trophy, our players have lacked match practice of late. Our opponents have a
much tighter schedule in the run-up to the end of the season and also carry
the burden of being unexpectedly bundled out ot the knock-out tournament by
Midlands dark horses, Moseley.
When seen at close quarters just after Xmas, Welsh made short
work of Sedgley Park, putting 60 unanswered points past the Northerners.
Their chunky, but mobile pack are ably supported by a determined back
division. There was a collective will that is annoyingly absent from Albion
on similar occasions. There is also a sudden jump in the points diff
column going up a notch in ND1. Beware.
When questioned off the field, one of the Welsh pack
commended the atmosphere when playing at Brickfields back in September.
(They went on to edge it 24-25.) A wry smile was flashed when asked how he
rated playing against a 49 year old prop. Diplomatically avoiding any
reference to the speed angle, he expressed respect for the way that all
attempts to manoeuvre the scrum were stymied by our venerable CoR. There's
life in the old dog still!
This is a key match for Albion as we approach the last month
of so of 2008/9. On the back of a creditable away performance against Donny,
we have fixtures with both Beds and the Pirates before Leeds when the
curtain comes down. Hard to call and dependent on our team ruthlessly
applying themselves, I forecast something akin to the last result - but
reversed, of course! Get it right and we could well finish this term with a
flourish and a giant fillip in morale to all.
Discipline-wise, LW are better behaved by 7 yellows to
9 and pen stats of 42/37 against 47/40.
No word on the opposition team list as yet; watch out for the
following on the try front:
9
Paul Sampson
5
Tom Brown
4
Mark Harris
Micheal Tagicakibau
Aled Thomas
3
Allen Chiltern
Paul Mackey
Peter Murchie
2
Paul Doran-Jones
Aaron Lisschak
Tom Rock
Tom Tombleson
Paul Sampson
5
Tom Brown
4
Mark Harris
Micheal Tagicakibau
Aled Thomas
3
Allen Chiltern
Paul Mackey
Peter Murchie
2
Paul Doran-Jones
Aaron Lisschak
Tom Rock
Tom Tombleson
Fancy a week-end away? Welsh host the Ladies England v
Scotland 6 Nations fixture on the Saturday afternoon featuring Albion's
own Georgina Rosario... Top food in the clubhouse of all sorts and the
internationals on TV. No coach from Plymouth, 3-4 hours by car or train.
National League One Data
League Table |
||||||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | dif | TF | TA | BP | Pnts | ||
| 1 | Leeds | 25 | 23 | 0 | 2 | 996 | 321 | 675 | 138 | 33 | 17 | 109 |
|
||||||||||||
| 2 | Chiefs | 24 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 871 | 320 | 551 | 123 | 39 | 18 | 104 |
| 3 | B Blues | 25 | 18 | 0 | 7 | 679 | 407 | 272 | 92 | 44 | 14 | 86 |
| 4 | Knights | 24 | 17 | 1 | 6 | 692 | 438 | 254 | 81 | 51 | 13 | 83 |
| 5 | Nott'ham | 23 | 16 | 0 | 7 | 723 | 389 | 334 | 97 | 42 | 16 | 78 |
| 6 | Pirates | 25 | 14 | 1 | 10 | 639 | 461 | 178 | 82 | 48 | 14 | 72 |
| 7 | Welsh | 23 | 14 | 0 | 9 | 563 | 460 | 103 | 64 | 54 | 11 | 67 |
| 8 | Albion | 24 | 13 | 2 | 9 | 504 | 488 | 16 | 55 | 60 | 7 | 63 |
| 9 | Cov | 24 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 496 | 520 | -24 | 66 | 68 | 13 | 57 |
| 10 | Titans | 26 | 11 | 1 | 14 | 677 | 721 | -44 | 87 | 91 | 11 | 53 |
| 11 | Moseley | 22 | 9 | 0 | 13 | 559 | 557 | 2 | 70 | 79 | 13 | 49 |
|
||||||||||||
| 12 | Esher | 24 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 488 | 642 | -154 | 61 | 83 | 9 | 47 |
| 13 | N Blues | 24 | 4 | 2 | 18 | 317 | 820 | -503 | 37 | 112 | 4 | 24 |
| 14 | Tigers | 24 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 350 | 925 | -575 | 47 | 127 | 7 | 23 |
| 15 | Man | 25 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 361 | 876 | -515 | 47 | 127 | 10 | 18 |
| 16 | Otley | 24 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 323 | 893 | -570 | 34 | 123 | 6 | 16 |
Nottingham -2 points
luding 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 |
| Welsh | 59/52 | 46/35 | 78 | 42/37 | 5/3 | 7/2 | 7/8 | 0/0 |
| Albion | 54/57 | 42/31 | 78 | 47/40 | 2/2 | 1/2 | 9/16 | 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.
Next Fixtures
|
|
||
| Esher | v | Coventry |
| Moseley | v | Exeter Chiefs |
| Newbury Blues | v | Doncaster Knights |
| Sedgley Tigers | v | Bedford Blues |
|
|
||
| London Welsh | v | Plymouth Albion |
Side by side |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gate 1164 avg 1931 max |
Gate 3283 avg 6871 max |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Form home w l w w l l l w w l l w away w l w l w w l w w w w |
Form home l w d w w w w w w l l w w away l w l w w l l d w l l |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best home game 60 - 0 Tigers Worst away game Leeds 35 - 10 |
Best home game 47 - 6 Man Worst away game Leeds 49 - 18 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most points in a match 21 Aled Thomas Welsh 31 - 16 Knights |
Most points in a match 21 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 25 Nott'ham |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most tries in a match 2 Paul Sampson Welsh 40 - 12 N Blues |
Most tries in a match 2 Matt Hopper Albion 36 - 14 Esher Justin Mensah-Cover Albion 31 - 7 Tigers |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Recent results
|
Recent results
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRIES 9 Paul Sampson 5 Tom Brown 4 Mark Harris Micheal Tagicakibau Aled Thomas 3 Allen Chiltern Paul Mackey Peter Murchie 2 Paul Doran-Jones Aaron Lisschak Tom Rock Tom Tombleson 1 Darrell Ball Matt Corker Hugo Ellis Simon Etheridge Dan George Aaron Hopkins Hywel Jenkins Sunia Koto William Lawson Wame Lewaravu Ed Lewis-Pratt Aaron Liffchak Mike Powell Ed Pratt Dom Shabbo Sunia Koto Vuli |
TRIES 6 Matt Hopper 5 Geoff Griffiths Justin Mensah-Cover 4 Gareth Evans 3 Arran Cruikshanks Mike Denbee Keni Fisilau Ryan Hopkins Tom Jarvis Wayne Sprangle 2 Liam Gibson Kieran Hallett Greg Nicholls James Owen Sean-Michael Stephen 1 Ross Allan Alex Davies Jannie Du Toit Ross Laidlaw Kyle Marriott Martin Rice |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline SinBin Tom Brown Paul Doran-Jones Aaron Liffchak Aaron Lisschak (2) Mike Powell Sonia koto Vuli |
Discipline SinBin Arthur Brenton Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau (3) Tom Jarvis Sean-Michael Stephen (2) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Stumbleupon| 19 Mar, 2009 10:25 | Report |
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Unofficial Plymouth Albion (IP Logged) Unregistered User |
Spy in the Camp - London Welsh
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Apples are part of my 5 a day! |
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