By Frank Stormont
April 25 2006

Best game of the season with 9 tries to enjoy. Sedgley Park end up bottom of the table but Albion stay in 5th place just one point behind Titans with onematch to play!  

An absolutely fantastic match for players and spectators alike.  I think the score is worth repeating Plymouth Albion 55 Sedgley Park 7. Park had only lost to Harlequins in their last 4 matches but forgot to pack their form on the coach when they travelled south to Brickfields. Why do we leave the best to the end of the season? 

A brace of tries to Regardt, Keni and Nic and their first tries of the season to Ed Lewsey and Ryan Hopkins in a nine try match for 2556 spectators to applaud  and Ed Barnes 15 points with the boot.  Sedgley park did not show the talent that they must of had to beat Pirates, Exeter and Doncaster and moved back into bottom place in the league.

It took just 4 minutes for Regardt Van Eyk to score in the corner with Ed Barnes to convert and set the scene for the run of play for the rest of the match. 10 minutes later Ed Barnes broke through the Park defence with a hand off but his pass did not go to hand.  Shortly after however his pass went to the safe hands of Man of the Match Keni Fisilau for his first of the match and again Ed put the ball between the posts.  Then as Martin Rice came off for a blood injury Ed popped another 3 points from a penalty for offside.

Almost immediately from the restart Martin Schusterman collected the ball from well inside his own half only to pulled down just 7 metres short of the line. Shortly afterwards however Nic Sestaret was able to score in the corner to bring the score to 22-0. Then with the play just 10 metres from the Albion line Park moved the ball out fast and Chris Hall found a gap to score under the posts for their only points of the day with Phil Jones converting.

Albion playing well as a team ended the half with a backs try which was completed by Ed Lewsey for his first for Albion bringing the score with the conversion to 29 points to 7 and securing the try bonus point.

Albion came out from the changing rooms with the same mindset they did the first half and 12 minutes in scored with Ryan Hopkins going over from a driving maul before Park bought on three pairs of fresh legs. Within seconds of the restart Keni intercepted  a Park pass on his own 22, and then ran the length of the pitch to put the ball down under the posts for Ed to again convert.

If the result was not certain before we felt that it was now with a buffer of 34 points Keni  was almost on for his hat trick but after breaking through the Park line his pass did not go to hand. After Chris Rowe of Park jumped over the ruck to take out Nigel Cane the ref signalled a Penalty but later reversed it due to retaliation. 

With just over 10 minutes to go Albion completed their replacements and allowing Ed Lewsey to move to the position he played at for Exeter, scrum half.  Nic Sestaret was then on the end of a move that allowed him to score under the posts and in the final play Ed Barnes passed to Nat Saumi then to Regardt Van Eyk to complete the game with a conversion and 55 to 7 point win.

At the beginning of the game I had joked with Bob Evens that we could win with 50 points but we agreed that the Park had been doing well recently, but we made it!  You can't stop wondering though how many of this team were playing for the last time at Brickfields as their home ground.  We will just have to wait and see.

Match Photos

If you have any comments on this page please email Frank