Spy in the Camp - Coventry
COVENTRY
By Frank Stormont & CD
December 11 2008
As NL1 start the second half of the season for the very last time Albion travel to Coventry. Coventry have always been tough to beat especially at home so this is a big ask for the trevellers.
This Weekend
v 
Cov v Albion
Saturday 13 December
K.O. 3 pm
also
SW U18 v Redruth U19
Sunday Noon
and
Warriors v Lanson
MON 7:30pm
and
a chance to see the replay
of Cov match
Thursday 7pm
We now start the second half of the season and I have still not bought my Christmas presents yet! If I were to ask for something it would be the chance for Albion to perform even better in the second half of the season.
The Warriors match has moved to an evening kick off on the Monday and I will let you know if anything moves or cancels this event I have had it confirmed that match will start at 7:30. The last evening match was not well attended and those that did not turn out were the losers! Although Exeter United won with a convincing score line it was a good game to watch. There were the ever present pasties and hot drinks on sale along with the beers from the club house and expect the same will be the case on Monday. Entry will be £5 with accompanied under 16s free.
Keni will not be available for the trip to Coventry on Saturday but will be available for selection for the home next home game against Nottingham. Kyle may well be available but it is unclear if James Owen will be selected.
Tim Mathias that has made a number of returns to Albion for cover in the prop position will probably be back with his home club, Mounts Bay, on Saturday.
Matt Hopper, who has had that dream start to Albion rugby is now joint top try scorer for the club this season and at this rate could end up with 24 league tries for the season!!
The two Canadians are still trying to get back into the starting line-up with Tom Jarvis and Wayne Sprangle holding their own.
After Colin played 10 minutes at the end of the Warriors match on Monday night against Exeter United he will be hoping for a return to the 1st team squad. Will this be on the bench or will be push Mike Lewis from his slot. My guess would be that big C will start on the bench.
Good news for Jake Childs and Ross Batten are both inproving after picking up pre season injuries.
Our biggest problem at the moment though is the lack of prop cover and the club may need to put their hands into their pockets to solve this problem.
Coventry
Coventry have had their problems more off the field than on it, before the season started it was the supporters efforts to raise money that kept Coventry in the league, and more recently the ‘dispute’ over money owed, saw the RFU issue another ultimatum to the club of relegation due to finances. When Coventry visited Albion in August, both Albion and Coventry supporters gave a good welcome to the team, just for being there. A good crowd from Coventry made the trip to Brickfields, but alas Coventry lost the game 13 to 5. So far in the season Coventry have won 7 and lost 5, last week Coventry played on a Sunday against Nottingham, I say ‘played’ but the players arrived to a frozen pitch and the game was called off by the ref, to be played at another date.
For the return match Albion travel 230 Miles to the Butts park arena to see if they can make it 2 out of 2. Coventry’s average gate is 1183 which is a few thousand short of Albion’s gate of 3134. There is a Travel Club minibus going, please contact the travel club for details, as there may be a spare seat if you want to go.
The Coventry crowd are friendly and will gladly point you to the nearest bar, or food if required. Tickets into the ground, Adult £15, Concession (OAP/Student) £10, children under 16 £5, under 4’s go in free. They can be purchased from the hut at the Butts Road entrance to the ground, close to the main turnstiles – car park end of ground. There is a ‘mobile food wagon’ at the ‘railway’ end of the pitch, but can be a bit pricey, but there are a few local pubs that serve food around the ground and a fish and chip shop/Chinese/Italian within walking distance of the ground. Bring some warm clothing as it can get a bit cold ‘up north’
Players to look out for…….
Laurence McGlone (no 8) who has scored 7 tries
Myles Dorrian (fly half) who has scored 5 tries, 11 conversions 1 drop goal and 4 penalties
Donovan Sanders (centre) who has scored 5 tries
Jamie Miller (flanker) who has 3 tries but 2 yellow cards
Ollie Winter (centre) who has scored 3 tries
Ronnie Mclean-Dents (no details held) who has 2 tries, 12 conversions and 12 penalties
Sam Herrington (Lock) who has scored 2 tries but has a RED CARD to his name
Lee Parry (wing), Tom Slater (scrum half) and Chris Whitehead (Hooker) who have scored 2 tries each
Nathan Jones (scrum half) who has one try and one yellow card
George Dixon (wing), Dai Maddocks (prop), Ben Pons (flanker), Ben Russell (centre) and Gregor Thomas (flanker) who have 1 try each
CD’s prediction
again sit on fence and say evens – its Albion’s for the taking, but Coventry have advantage of home ground, think there will be 3 points in it – hopefully to Albion but can go either way
National League One Data
League Table | ||||||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | dif | TF | TA | BP | Pnts | ||
| 1 | Leeds | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 666 | 184 | 482 | 95 | 18 | 11 | 71 |
| 2 | Chiefs | 15 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 625 | 215 | 410 | 88 | 26 | 12 | 68 |
| 3 | Nott'ham | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 444 | 226 | 218 | 60 | 25 | 9 | 55 |
| 4 | B Blues | 15 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 433 | 240 | 193 | 56 | 24 | 7 | 47 |
| 5 | Knights | 15 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 416 | 293 | 123 | 48 | 33 | 9 | 47 |
| 6 | Welsh | 15 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 332 | 302 | 30 | 35 | 34 | 6 | 42 |
| 7 | Pirates | 15 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 379 | 277 | 102 | 46 | 28 | 6 | 40 |
| 8 | Albion | 15 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 330 | 319 | 11 | 36 | 40 | 5 | 39 |
| 9 | Titans | 15 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 453 | 431 | 22 | 59 | 54 | 7 | 33 |
| 10 | Cov | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 292 | 319 | -27 | 39 | 39 | 5 | 33 |
| 11 | Moseley | 15 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 359 | 379 | -20 | 44 | 58 | 9 | 33 |
| 12 | Tigers | 15 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 269 | 577 | -308 | 36 | 78 | 5 | 21 |
| 13 | Esher | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 225 | 442 | -217 | 27 | 57 | 5 | 17 |
| 14 | N Blues | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 208 | 548 | -340 | 25 | 75 | 4 | 16 |
| 15 | Otley | 15 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 194 | 505 | -311 | 20 | 70 | 5 | 13 |
| 16 | Man | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 210 | 578 | -368 | 26 | 81 | 7 | 7 |
Nottingham -2 points
including an un-registered player in their match squad for the match against Bedford
Rotherham Titans -4 points
Back row forward Barry Jacobs effective registration with the RFU expired on 18th Sept 2008 yet the player was included in Rotherham's match squad for 2 matches.
Points by type & Discipline Record | ||||||||
| Team | Tries | Cons | Con Rate | Pens | Drop goals | Pen try | Yell | Red |
| Albion | 36/38 | 25/22 | 69 | 32/23 | 2/2 | 0/2 | 7/9 | 0/0 |
| Cov | 39/39 | 23/27 | 59 | 17/21 | 1/1 | 0/1 | 7/13 | 1/0 |
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.
Next Fixtures
Side by side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gate 1183 avg 1700 max | Gate 3134 avg 6871 max | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Form home w w w l w w away w l l l l w l l | Form home w w w w w l l w w away l l d w l l | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best home game 48 - 3 Otley Worst away game Leeds 57 - 5 | Best home game 47 - 6 Man Worst away game Leeds 49 - 18 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most points in a match 16 Myles Dorrian Cov 31 - 5 N Blues Ronnie Mclean-Dents Cov 48 - 3 Otley | Most points in a match 16 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 17 Moseley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most tries in a match 3 Laurence McGlone Cov 29 - 18 Man | Most tries in a match 2 Matt Hopper Albion 36 - 14 Esher Justin Mensah-Cover Albion 31 - 7 Tigers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recent results
| Recent results
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TRIES 7 Laurence McGlone 5 Myles Dorrian Donovan Sanders 3 Jamie Miller Ollie Winter 2 Sam Herrington Ronnie Mclean-Dents Lee Parry Tom Slater Chris Whitehead 1 George Dixon Nathan Jones Dai Maddocks Ben Pons Ben Russell Gregor Thomas | TRIES 4 Gareth Evans Matt Hopper Justin Mensah-Cover 3 Arran Cruikshanks Keni Fisilau Tom Jarvis Wayne Sprangle 2 Geoff Griffiths Ryan Hopkins 1 Mike Denbee Jannie Du Toit Liam Gibson Kieran Hallett Kyle Marriott Greg Nicholls James Owen Martin Rice | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline Red Card Sam Herrington SinBin Darren Clayton (3) Robert Dugard Nathan Jones Jamie Miller (2) | Discipline SinBin Arthur Brenton Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau (3) Sean-Micheal Stephen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aug 08 Albion 13 Coventry 5 (w)
Feb 08 Coventry 29 Albion 10 (l)
Oct 07 Albion 19 Coventry 28 (l)
Mar 07 Albion 17 Coventry 6 (w)
Jan 07 Coventry 16 Albion 11 (l)
Sept 06 Albion 27 Coventry 19 (w)
Feb 06 Albion 34 Coventry 27 (w)
Oct 05 Coventry 7 Albion 13 (w)
Weather forecast
Current forecast is heavy rain max daytime temp 5oC with strong south easterly winds up to 23mph. Pressure 985mb (low)
Forwards
Brits Rudolf
Burgess Carl
Clayton Darren
Dugard Robert
Herrington Samuel
Lyons David
McGlone Laurence
Miller James
Ovens Laurence
Pearl Stewart
Pons Benjamin
Whitehall Ricky
Whitehead Christopher
Venter Henno
Backs
Dixon George
Dorrian Myles
Hayes Thomas
Hurrell William
Jones Nathan
McLean-Dents Ronald
Russell Ben
Sanders Donavon
Slater Thomas
Winter Oliver
--x--
Don't let anything get in the way of a good game of Rugby
covmick/Michael Carter
Don't let anything get in the way of a good game of RugbyIt's going to be a toughy but emminantly winnable.
And very very WET.
Don't let anything get in the way of a good game of Rugby