Tremendous effort ends in defeat!

Pete Jorgensen
By Roth Admin
January 31 2005

Pre-match Andy Northey prophesied, “The danger today is the headline will read, “Tremendous effort ends in glorious defeat!” “There is no glorious defeat,” snapped Northey! OK Andy, we’ll simply go with, “Tremendous effort ends in defeat,” because that exactly sums up the afternoon.

Rotherham gave their all in a pulsating match that produced six tries and a 100% success rate from both kickers in front of a passionate Devon crowd that exceeded three and a half thousand.

Post match Northey added, “We’ve said we are going to be hard on ourselves and that’s the way it has to be. We gave away too many penalties, we turned too much ball over and we played rugby in the wrong part of the field. You do that against a side like Plymouth and you end up losing the game.

“The margin between success and failure is very narrow and we made too many errors. Our line out didn’t function very well and when your first phase ball isn’t tremendous then your in the mire. We need to keep working on this aspect of our game.

“It’s difficult when the games getting tight, we had a lot of lads who’d put a lot in and they weren’t much experience on the bench to bring on. The lads out there had to work hard for a long period of time, they’d put everything in and there wasn’t a lot on the bench that was going to really lift us up”

Northey watched his side make a nervy start and after the Rotherham pack pulled down an Albion maul in front of the posts, he witnessed James Pritchard slot over to give the hosts an early advantage.

Nine minutes in and Albion scored the try of the match. Rotherham set up their own driving maul deep into Albion’s 22, however they were turned over and the ball arrived with Carrington in his in-goal area.

Instead of the expected kick for touch to clear the danger he threw a pass along the line to Pritchard. Pritchard made the initial break and offloaded to Robinson just outside his own 22, the lanky winger galloped all of 70 metres for a converted try.

Rotherham came back strongly and their pack, particularly the back row, more than matched their counterparts and the backs looked dangerous every time in possession. Eaton and Pritchard traded penalties with the youngster edging out winner with three successes to two. As the half ended with Rotherham trailing 16-9, there was genuine belief that an upset was on the cards.

That belief was enhanced just two minutes into the second period. After five or six good phases from the combatant Rotherham pack, the ball came out to Tom Eaton who put in a cheeky grubber behind the Albion defence. The ball bounced kindly and went over Fabian, Jorgensen and Strettle had a foot race with the latter wining to score a converted try under the posts.

Four minutes later and Albion nudged ahead once again from a Pritchard penalty after Rotherham had been penalised for being caught off side. Plymouth’s 2nd try came on 50 minutes after a catch and drive rumbled 15 metres for hooker Stewart Pearl to touch down.

On 55 minutes it looked ominous for Rotherham as they went down to 14 men, hooker Richard Emms was sin-binned for pulling down an Albion maul. However on the hour mark once again Rotherham showed the character that still exists within the club.

Briggs made the initial break into Albion territory and after good recycling work the ball arrived with Blackett who made good yards to find Wood. The full back cut brilliantly back inside and offloaded to the onrushing Jorgensen who arched around the flailing defence to score near the posts for Rotherham’s 2nd converted try.

Going into the last ten minutes and trailing by just three points it was all up for grabs. However it was Albion who took the initiative. A twelve man driving maul proved too much for Rotherham as former Lane hero Alfie Tooala was driven over for the killer score. A minute from time and Perry scored Plymouth’s bonus point try with an identical move to give the final score of 40-23 a flattering look to it for the Devonians.

Afterwards man of the match Pete Jorgensen said, “We were good in patches but made some crucial errors. Plymouth are a well drilled team and when they get into your 22, they are difficult to stop. Our fringe defence was fantastic and our back row was outstanding. But we need to work some more on stopping the rolling maul. Plymouth from five metres out – I’d back them to score nine out of ten times against any team in this league.”

On a lighter note Jorgensen accused David Strettle of “stealing his try!” The Aussie quipped, “The little bum stole my try and he knows it – just look at him laughing. I called the grubber to Tom and it was meant for me – but I’ll let him have it, he needs all the tries he can get. I’ve got to let the little fella have a bit of glory, I’ve had my day.

Roth Admin man of the match: Pete Jorgensen – Outstanding display full of pace and power and scoring his 5th try in as many games. Watch out David Strettle - Jorgo’s after the top try scorer accolade!

Attendance: 3511

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (RFU)

Scorers: Rotherham – Strettle T, Jorgensen T, Eaton 3P 2C. Plymouth – Robinson T, Pearl T, Tooala T, Perry T, Pritchard 4P 4C.

Rotherham:

15 Michael Wood, 14 David Strettle, 13 Peter Jorgensen, 12 Lee Blackett, 11 Gareth Morley, 10 Tom Eaton, 9 Jacob Rauluni (Haami 77), 1 Rod Latham (Lynch 71), 2 Richard Emms (Briggs 56), 3 John Rawson, 4 Opeta Palepoi, 5 Glen Kenworthy (Pendlebury 52), 6 Des Tuiavii (West 80), 7 Tu Tamarua, 8 Jannie Bornman.

Plymouth Albion:

15 Pritchard, 14 Robinson, 13 Saumi (Barnes 73), 12 Fisilau, 11 Fabian, 10 Carrington, 9 Shelbourne, 1 Parkes, 2 Pearl (Dawe 53), 3 Paoletti, 4 Luxton, 5 Perry, 6 Tooala, 7 Thomas (Schusteman 73), 8 Ward-Smith