By Frank Stormont
April 20 2007

A look ahead at the weekends trip to Goldington Road. Tom Hayes gets Captain and Andy Williams gets a start. Albion needs this win to see them finish as the top club in the south west.

Squad to play Bedford

Tim Mathias

James Owen

Andy Williams

Mike Lewis

Dan Smith

Tom Hayes

Brett Stroud

Chris Lowrie

Ed Lewsey

Ed Barnes

Nic Sestaret

Arran Cruickshanks

Regardt van Eyk

Tom Arscott

Nat Saumi

Matt Newman

Sila Va'Enuku

Ross Allen

Jon Fabian

Richard Oxley

Ed King

Gareth Evans

Jake Childs

Bench (from)

 

Spy in the Bedford Camp

Saturday 21st April K.O. 3pm

Bedford Blues
Goldington Road
Bedford
MK40 3NF

 

This must be one of the closest finishes to the season for a long time. Not only for the promotion slot but all the way down to 7th place. Only 11 points between 3rd and 7th at the moment. The only two teams that has booked their places in the league with two matches to go is Leeds, who will go back to Premiership and Waterloo who will be going back to National Division Two. All other places are up for grabs.

Albion finish the season with two difficult matches. Bedford away and then home to Leeds Tykes. And all that with a team that seems to find a new injury each week. They could finish as high as 3rd or as low as 7th and with a possibility of the top 5 clubs being invited to take place in the Heineken Cup next season this match is all important. But on the other hand when would we play those extra matches with an already full season due to the expanded league.

Recent form for Bedford at home should give them an advantage but with many matches going against the form and with Albion having that extra bit of determination for the last away trip anything is possible. What will mater is the way both teams use the ball. Their ball retention and very important their defence.

Bedford come into the match having a 100% record at home since last November. Top point and try scorer for Bedford is James Pritchard, now where have I heard that name before?

---

Ben Gulliver and Keni Fisilau ruled out of match.  Tom Hayes to captain side.

---

Table positions

 

 

---

Bedford's last few matches

London Welsh 10  47 Bedford Blues

Bedford Blues 41  10 Cornish Pirates

Rotherham Titans 28  20 Bedford Blues     

Bedford Blues 14  10 Nottingham    

---

Last meeting

30 December 06
Plymouth Albion 22
Bedford 8

Attendance: = 3827

On the last match of last year Albion got all 5 points from the fixture at Brickfields.

On a blustery day when the rain came down at times and the mud hung on the faces of the players none of that mattered as Abion claim maximum points from the fixture.

Albion had both territory and possession advantage for most of the match and were able to push Bedford back whenever they wanted to at one time the rolling/driving maul went a good 30 metres but was taken into touch by Bedford with just a metre to go.

Martin Rice picks up his 4th and 5th try of the season with Tom Arscott picking up his 6th diving try and Nic Sestaret his 15th.

Albion did not stay long on the pitch after the match preferring to shower off the layers of mud off their bodies.

More ...           This is ... Report

Team: Nat Saumi, Tom Arscott, Regardt van Eyk, Arran Cruickshanks, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Martin Rice, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Brett Stroud, Tom Hayes, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Chris Lowrie Replacements: David Delaney, Nigel Cane, Tim Mathias(used), James Owen, Francisco Deformes(used), Bryn Jenkins, Sila Va'Enuku

Scorers :- Tries 2x Martin Rice Nic Sestaret Tom Arscott Conversions Ed Barnes

---

Last time at Goldington Road

25th March '06

Bedford 34 Albion 28

Albion came home with 2 points for their troubles but it could have been 5 after Nic Sestaret was called back for a pass that the referee judged to have gone forward.

Tries for Luke Arscott, Nic Sestaret, Brett Luxton and Danny Thomas with 8 kicking points to ED Barnes.

Of the team that started last May only 5 are likely to start this Saturday (Tom Hayes, Ed Barnes, Nic Sestaret, Keni Fisilau and Ed Lewsey) 

 This is ... Report

---

Predictions

Rugby Round up

Fourth plays seventh at Goldington Road in what should be a cracker. Albion will be looking for a response to last week’s shock home defeat to Nottingham but wins at Bedford are hard to come by. The Blues have lost just once at home all season and have been in pretty decent form of late. The Blues to win by seven.

Rugby Times

 Bedford to win by 8 pts

Terrace Talk

Seventh placed Bedford Blues entertain fourth placed Plymouth Albion at Goldington Road looking to maintain their good recent form. 

Bedford Blues are looking to make it three wins in a row and have shown good form lately with five wins in their last six matches. At home they have an impressive record to date this season with 12 wins and a draw from their 14 matches and only Earth Titans have left with a win. 

Plymouth Albion saw their three match winning run come to an end last Saturday as they look to hold of Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs to finish fourth in the table, they are both four points adrift of Albion. 

On the road Albion have seven wins and seven defeats to date this season. 

When the sides met at Brickfields earlier in the season Albion were 22-8 winners. 

Prediction: Home win by seven points as the Blues maintain their excellent home form. 

BetFred

Give the match to Albion by 7 points

Frank

I will go against recent form and give the match to Albion, hoping that last week's loss will motivate the team and take the fixture. A close match that will see Bedford get the losing bonus point. 

---

Other matches this weekend

Saturday

Doncaster v Waterloo (Donny by 26^rt  30^rr 15^t 31^b)

Exeter v Otley (Exeter by 7^rt  20^rr 12^t  28^b)

Moseley v London Welsh (Moseley by 8^rt  6^rr 8^t Welsh by 4^b)

Sedgley Park v Newbury (Park by 8^rt  6^t  Newbury by 7^rr 6^b)

Sunday

Cornish Pirates v Pertemps Bees (Pirates by 24^rt 20^rr 10^t  15^b)

Leeds v Earth Titans (Leeds by 10^rt  8^rr 12^t 6^b)

Nottingham v Coventry (Nottingham by 8^rt  10^rr 8^t 3^b)

Predictions BetFred ^b Terrace talk ^t Rugby Roundup ^rr Rugby Times ^rt

---

Travelling fans

Gates & Bars open at Noon

End of Season Party & Band in the Marquee post match

ALL WELCOME

Hospitality prior to the Match is now SOLD OUT

How to get there

There should still be a number of places on the supporters coach which leaves Home Park Car Park Milehouse end by the Vets / Swimming pool entrance traffic lights at 7:30am.

Phone Keith Colpitts Travel Secretary. Thursday and Friday Home:(01752)567478.)

Bedford sits about 20 miles north of Luton Airport and 15 miles off the M1.

So best route probably by road is A38, M5, M4 to J 4B, M25 to J21, M1 to J13, A421, A6, A428(Goldington Road) 255 miles.

Local Map

---

Albion Matters

Nic Sestaret was reported to be unfit on this website earlier this week but according to the Herald is ready for the trip. He is also looking to achieve 30 league tries in the season.

Scott Zimmerman has been ruled out for the rest of the season as has Federico Genoud.

Ben Gulliver and Keni Fisilau have both been said to be doubtful and late decisions may need to be made on them.

Richard Oxley has missed the last three matches and I have no information on his status nor that of Wihan Neethling, who had picked up a groin injury.

Frank's Team. Nat Saumi, Tom Arscott, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Tim Matias, James Owen, Gareth Evans, Mike Lewis, Ben Gulliver, Tom Hayes, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie.  Reps: Mat Newman, Sila Va'Enuku, Arran Cruickshanks, Richard Oxley, Andy Williams, Dan Smith, Jake Childs

 

 

Warriors

Warriors were to have played Lanson, sorry Launceston, during the week but the match was called off due to the lack of props.

It looks unlikely that they will have any more fixtures this season.

 

Ladies

The ladies have now finished their league fixtures in Premiership Two. After a fix up about the venue of the match Albion went down to Thirsk Sharks, who now no longer play at Thirsk.

They have the South West 10s tournament to look forward too next Sunday.

Next season the Women's Rugby League structure changes with only one Premiership league and two Champion's leagues, north and south.  Each of these two new leagues will have 8 teams in.  It is expected that the elite players for women's rugby will come from Premiership and the two new leagues.

Albion will be losing a number of their players as they move on after completing their higher education courses.