This Weekend

v
Albion v Tigers
Saturday 01 November
K.O. 3 pm
plus
Richmond v Warriors
Sat 2:30
and
Saracens v Ladies
Sun 2:30

Don't forget the Barbarians match next Tuesday when there could be 4 Albion players in the teams. With Arthur Brenton, Danny Thomas and Kyle Marriott already named in the Baa baas side Gareth Evens is also hoping to be be taking up his place for he Combined Services.

Last year this was a well attended match that was broadcast on services TV but this is not expected to be the case this year, so the only way to watch this match is to be there!

Book your tickets on line at Albion

The main match starts at 7pm but there will be a good curtain raiser between an RFUW Development side and the Women's Combined Services who kick off at 5pm.

Charlotte Boggis, who now plays for Bath, is expected to start on the wing. Charlotte has played a number of matches for Albion Ladies in the passed.

Sedgley Park

Bedford pinks v Sedgley Park Tigers

If you want to check out there last game then click on the image to see 20 mins of the the match. Yes I did say a full 20 minutes that is certainly something to aim at.  It might also be looking at this for a preview of Bedford in a couple of weeks.

The Tigers had the best possible starts to the season winning their first 2 matches and at one point sat at the top of the table. Were they promotion prospects, well no as they have failed to win a single match since.

They sit in the possible relegation zone, depending on what the RFU/FDR decide, this decision has been delayed again and may be we will find out what is going to happen before we host Esher next Saturday.

With Tigers already letting in 49 tries this season so far Albion will be looking to test out their defence. A 5 pointer must therefore be the aim for the hosts. Albion have a positive points difference of 13 points where as Park have the second worst in the league second only to newcomers Manchester.

As far as yellow cards are concerned they have a better record and in fact in their 9 matches their supporters have only seen the ref bring out a yellow card 4 times and one of those was for their opponents.  

Albion

This will be the last time for three weeks that our two Canadians Justin and Sean-Michael will be available for selection and with Geoff Griffiths out with a broken jaw is this time to bring Wihan back into the fold. Wihan has been seen training with the first team for the very first time this season so just maybe he is being got ready for a place on the bench sometime in November.

Liam only just missed fitness last week so he may be available for selection this weekend.

I have said it a number of times but with Gareth Evans starting in the back row he is also available for replacement of any of the front row players. Do we need another hooker on the bench or would it be better to put another back row replacement on the bench such as Danny or even Jamie Tripconey?

Albion are really beginning to play more as a team and whilst we do not have any outstanding players, or perhaps because of it the team is getting better. The 10 all draw last week in Rotherham was arguably the their best performance so far. Titans had a bad start to the season but had improved considerably and this was a certain win as far as they were concerned. 

With Pirates away to on form Bedford a win at Brickfields would see Albion regain 7th position but they will need other clubs to do badly before they can improve on 7th.

Visiting Supporters

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

Weather forecast

Current forecast is for sunny intervals max temp 10^oC with south 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.

This weekend's  Fixtures

Side by side
Gate 3386 avg 6871 max	Gate 943 avg 2000 max
Form home w l l w w away d w l l	Form home l l l l w away l l l w
Best home game 47 - 6 Man Worst away game Nott'ham 43 - 19	Best home game 20 - 12 Titans Worst away game Chiefs 71 - 5
Most points in a match 16 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 17 Moseley	Most points in a match 21 Phil Jones Man 35 - 51 Tigers
Most tries in a match 1 Too many to mention	Most tries in a match 3 Paul Wilcock Man 35 - 51 Tigers
Recent results 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 Nott'ham 43 - 19 Albion Albion 13 - 5 Cov	Recent results Tigers 3 - 41 Knights B Blues 53 - 7 Tigers Tigers 7 - 52 Leeds Chiefs 71 - 5 Tigers Tigers 27 - 30 Cov Nott'ham 32 - 24 Tigers Tigers 11 - 43 Welsh Man 35 - 51 Tigers Tigers 20 - 12 Titans
TRIES 3 Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau 2 Geoff Griffiths Justin Mensah-Cover Wayne Sprangle 1 Liam Gibson Kieran Hallett Ryan Hopkins Tom Jarvis Greg Nicholls Martin Rice	TRIES 5 Peter Swatkins Paul Wilcock 2 Lisiate Tafa 1 Oliver Cook Phil Jones Chris Leck Adam Newton Matthew Riley Glenn Townson
Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Kieran Hallett 11 2 10 58 Ross Laidlaw 5 - 8 34	Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Phil Jones 10 - 7 41 Matthew Riley 3 - 6 24
Discipline SinBin Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau Sean-Michael Stephen	Discipline SinBin Oliver Cook Chris Hall Glenn Townson

Recent Meetings

22 March 08
Plymouth Albion 25
Sedgley Park 19

Attendance: = 2181

Team: Nat Saumi, Ed Lewsey, Arran Cruickshanks, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Brad Davies, Ed Lewsey, George Davis, James Owen, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Tom Hayes, Kyle Marriott, Brett Stroud, Jannie Bornman Replacements: Darren Ritchie, James Owen, Tim Mathias(used), Richard Oxley, Gareth Evans, Adam Kettle, Mike Denbee(used)

Scorers :- Tries Brad Davies Keni Fisilau Mike Denbee Penalties 2x Brad Davies Conversions 2x Brad Davies Sin Bin Nic Sestaret

10 November 07
Sedgley Park 14
Plymouth Albion 20

Attendance: = 516

On an over cast and drizzly day on the edges of Manchester Albion came with promise.

Unfortunately they were not able to deliver all they could. A number of kicks up field went straight into touch and the ball did not always go to hand.

With opportunities going begging Albion did step up the pace in the second half and gained a try early on when James Owen went over the line with Chris Lowrie and Steve Barrette on his shoulders.

Behind and going into time added on Albion again stepped up the pace and after the maul was dropped a number of times Rowan Kitt had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try.

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

Scorers :- Tries James Owen Penalty Tries Penalty Try Penalties 2x Ross Laidlaw Conversions 2x Ross Laidlaw

17 March 07
Sedgley Park 23
Plymouth Albion 35

Attendance: = 506

A good match in the first half with Ed Lewsey getting a hat trick and the bonus point in the 37th minute.

but Albion sit back and allow Park to come back. Albion defended well and claimed to bonus point for the first time away from home this year.

More ...

Opponents Report

Team: Nat Saumi, Wihan Neethling, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Tim Mathias, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Mike Lewis, Tom Hayes, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Chris Lowrie Replacements: Matt Newman(used), Tom Arscott(used), Arran Cruickshanks(used), Gareth Evans(used), James Owen(used), Dan Smith(used), Brett Stroud(used)

Scorers :- Tries 3x Ed Lewsey Regardt van Eyk Tim Mathias Conversions 5x Regardt van Eyk Sin Bin Scott Zimmerman

11 November 06
Plymouth Albion 30
Sedgley Park 6

Attendance: = 2706

A fast game that saw Albion score two tries in the second half and claim a bonus point and all the replacements at least played a part in the game.

With overcast conditions and a light wind meant that kicking was an option but the position or touch was not always achieved.

Wihan Neethling went down early in the first half from a hard tackle and it seemed to have affected his place kicking missing both conversion attempts in the second half.

Ark played a fast game never giving up and turned down several opportunities for three points for the possibility of 7 but never made it across the strong Albion defence.

A match that was easily won but you were left thinking that Albion could have had more points on the board. But who can complain about 5 points in the league?

More ...

Opponents Report

Team: Wihan Neethling, Tom Arscott, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Martin Rice, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Ben Gulliver, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Tom Hayes Replacements: Brett Stroud(used), Nat Saumi(used), Arran Cruickshanks(used), Matt Newman(used), Tim Mathias(used), James Owen(used), Chris Lowrie(used)

Scorers :- Tries Ben Gulliver Federico Genoud Regardt van Eyk Richard Oxley Penalties 2x Wihan Neethling Conversions 2x Wihan Neethling

22 April 06
Plymouth Albion 55
Sedgley Park 7

Attendance: = 2556

More ...

Team: Luke Arscott, Ed Lewsey, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Martin Rice, Stuart Friswell, Ryan Hopkins, Mike Lewis, Tom Hayes, Martin Schusterman, Danny Thomas, Alfie Tooala Replacements: Nat Saumi(used), Jon Fabian(used), Alister Livesey(used), Graham Dawe, Brett Luxton(used), Chris Lowrie(used), Brett Stroud(used)

Scorers :- Tries Ed Lewsey 2x Keni Fisilau 2x Nic Sestaret 2x Regardt van Eyk Ryan Hopkins Penalties Ed Barnes Conversions 6x Ed Barnes

03 December 05
Sedgley Park 8
Plymouth Albion 25

Attendance: = 475

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

Scorers :- Tries Keni Fisilau Luke Arscott Nick Defty Regardt van Eyk Penalties Ed Barnes Conversions Ed Barnes

Warriors

After having their last two Canterbury shield matches cancelled at short notice the boys will be hoping that their planned trip to Richmond goes ahead. Richmond themselves are unbeaten having played one more match than Warriors.

Warriors will always find themselves the underdogs when away from home since all the other clubs in this league are clustered around London. The team bus will be leaving Plymouth at 8am for a 2:30 kick off.

With injuries in the Plymouth squad the warriors are again likely to be reliant on the younger lads. 

Nat has been playing at full back for Albion and last week Ross Allan played well when he started at inside centre. Also the default captain for the Warriors, Matt Newman has been sitting out on the bench for the past few matches after David Palu damaged his knee against Chiefs.

Ladies

The ladies were back to winning ways last Sunday when they came out winners 10 - 7 to struggling Hove. Hove have not won a match yet but have always seemed to come a close second.

Both sides defended well most of the time and Albion should have won by more if it were not for a number of silly handling errors.

Hove took the lead when they managed to find themselves with a number of players overlap and broke through the thin defence to score under the posts. Within a few minutes Albion were back level when  fly half Nancy Stone spotted a gap and went straight through it to pick up a try which was converted by Tracy Corby. Tracy also picked up a penalty in the second half.

Charlotte Male who has started a couple of the previous matches this has been selected to the England under 20 squad for the season.

This Sunday the Ladies are also in London as they take on Saracens on Sunday.

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