Plymouth 15-14 Titans

National Division 1

28th January 2006

Brickfields Recreational Ground

Kick Off 2.15pm

Plymouth 15

Titans 14

V

Earth Titans: 15 Errie Claassens, 14 David Strettle, 13 WP Strauss (Anthony Carter 43), 12 Lee Blackett (Capt), 11 John Holtby, 10 Ledowyk Strauss (Mike Whitehead 56), 9 Joe Bedford (Morne Jonker 77), 1 Jon Golding (Attie Pienaar 77), 2 Neil Hanna (Nigel Conroy 68), 3 John Rawson (Adam Hopcroft 68), 4 Jannie Bornman, 5 Gareth McComb (,Louie McGowan 68) 6 Hendre Fourie 7 Neil Cochrane, 8 Scott Donald

All Replacements used

Plymouth Albion: 15 L Arscott, 14 Saumi, 13 van Eyk, 12 Fisilau, 11 Sestaret, 10 Barnes, 9 Cane, 1 Rice, 2 Pearl, 3 Zimmerman, 4 Rouse, 5 Luxton, 6 Lowrie, 7 Thomas (capt), 8 Hayes.

Replacements: 16 Leung-Wai, 17 Albina, 18 Fabian, 19 Hopkins, 20 Dawe, 21 Stroud, 22 Lewis.  

Head Coach Andre Bester said afterwards, ““We just lost our shape in the last fifteen minutes of the first half, it became too easy and that was our problem. We gave far too many penalties away, the referee didn’t have a clue what was going on in the scrum. They were pulling down the scrums and they were re-starting mauls left, right and centre.

“In terms of the game itself, we just needed a little bit of mental maturity. In the second half we needed guys to go and close it out, for us to win the game. And we should have won this game very easily, because at stages they weren’t even in the game.

“With what we had, we should have won this match - there’s no doubt about that. We had the possession but we were kicking absolutely dreadfully again, put Andrew Mehrtens in this side and we will be promoted!”

Right from the off Rotherham hit their straps and a thirty metre break by Neil Cochrane on his own 22 set the tone for an encouraging start.

On twelve minutes an excellent offloaded pass by Joe Bedford found David Strettle on the right wing. Strettle’s lightning pace enabled him to escape infield and as the full back approached he neatly side-stepped him to neatly glide under the sticks. WP Strauss slotted over from in front.

A couple of minutes later saw the first signs of the famous Plymouth maul. From a five metre line out eleven players joined the maul, number eight Tom Hayes broke off but just as he was about to touch down, Lee Blackett’s challenge caused the back rower to knock on.

Rotherham immediately bounced back to continue their dominance and first-rate mauling by the visitors constantly had Plymouth on the back foot. A sharp piece of thinking by Joe Bedford on 20 minutes enabled Roth to increase their lead.

The referee was playing a Roth advantage when a Roth maul came to a halt 15 metres short of the Plymouth line. Quick as you like, Joe Bedford deliberately knocked on and took a quick tap-penalty. With the referee shouting, “Leave him,” Bedford raced virtually unchallenged to go over near the posts for his first try in Roth colours.

WP Strauss tagged on the extras to give Roth a deservedly 14-0 lead. Maybe that’s where it started to go wrong for the visitors, it looked all too easy. But as everyone knows, Plymouth away is always just the opposite.

On 25 minutes Plymouth reduced the arrears with a Nat Saumi penalty after Roth were penalized for being off side. From the restart a terrific break from Albion lock Brett Luxton saw a whole five minutes of awesome Plymouth pressure on the Roth line.

Maul after maul were repelled with some outstanding and courageous Rotherham defending. Credit to Albion though, excellent ball retention enabled the pressure to finally yield some dividend, when Tom Hayes was deemed by the referee to have touch down near the corner. How the referee could have been sure is another question. Saumi neatly converted to reduce the Plymouth arrears to 10-14.

There was no doubt now which team had the momentum and a splendid break in midfield by Albion centre Keni Fisilau almost gave Albion a second try in the space of two minutes. Only a last ditch tackle from Errie Claassens prevented the try.

Further agony followed for Roth on 35 minutes when flanker Hendre Fourie was yellow carded for killing the ball. This spurred Albion on further and with the last play of the half, poor tackling in the Roth midfield allowed centre Regardt Van Eyk through to give Plymouth the lead for the first time. Saumi hit the upright with his conversion attempt.

Half Time: Plymouth Albion 15-14 Rotherham

Scoring opportunities were few in the second half and neither side came close to scoring a try.

However, Rotherham had two penalty opportunities. The first one, just two minutes in was long range and WP Strauss missed badly. Strauss suffering from a head wound which required stitches later, left the field almost immediately. Bester added later, Strettle should have taken that one!”

The second penalty came just past the hour mark, this time replacement Mike Whitehead took on the responsibility. Forty metres out and a little to the right, Whitehead’s standing foot appeared to slip slightly on impact, as a result the ball was pulled just left of the posts.

As the game entered the last ten, David Strettle almost made an interception and with no full back in place would have strolled over for a try. Bester revealed afterwards, “Strettle had the ball in his hands and he dropped it that would have been seven points and game over.”

No further opportunities arose and Rotherham left the field feeling that this was a game they could and possibly should have won.

Final Score: Plymouth Albion 15-14 Rotherham

Although losing by a single point away to Plymouth is no disgrace, Rotherham will be very disappointed at throwing a 14-0 lead away. It was said afterwards that the players thought it was going to be easy after racing into a 14-0 early lead.

Hopefully if they find themselves in a future, similar position, this lesson will have been learned. Bester hit the nail on the head when he spoke post match about “mental maturity.”

There’s little doubt that the core squad are developing into a very tidy unit, they just need to be more ruthless when the occasion presents itself. If they can master that, then who knows just how far this Rotherham team can go under Bester!

Full post match comments to follow.

Bedford 38-17 London Welsh

Coventry 37-24 Doncaster

Harlequins 31-16 Nottingham

Otley 51-14 Newbury

Pertemps Bees 12-6 Sedgley Park

Playing Sunday

Cornish Pirates 16-23 Exeter

National Division 1

Roth v Nottingham 4 February at Earth Arena
.

kick off 2.00pm

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