Spy in the Camp - Exeter Chiefs

With the shortage trip of the season Albion may have one of the toughest asks of the season. But with a local derby anything goes and the visitors will have the advantage of a good travelling support. If you don't get to the match why not join us in the Cowin after the match! £3.50 for curry and a pint!

This Weekend

v
Chiefs v Albion
Saturday 31 January
K.O. 3 pm

No Westcountry sorry Devonport Warriors or Ladies matches this weekend.

Message from Pete Drewett:

A longer spy than usual as the Chiefs are our ‘closest’ rivals (being just up the A38)

For those travelling by car there is NO PARKING at the ground itself, although there is a ‘drop off’ point.  The Chiefs have arranged extra parking, so if the normal car park is full, then use the Westpoint car park, for the Westpoint car park , there will be a £2 charge to go to charity and a free bus to transfer to Sandy Park.  Westpoint car park will be open just before noon, when buses start until 7.30 pm. The car parks will be sign posted from junction 30 of the M5 – follow the signs to ‘Rugby Parking’

To encourage supporters to arrive early and leave later, beer prices will be reduced between 1200 (noon) and 1330 (1.30pm) and after the match until 1800 (6pm).  The previous weeks Chiefs game will be shown on all internal screens from 12.30 pm, which should be their EDF match game against Preston Grasshoppers.  Facilities at the ground provide ample bars and food outlets, including the outside Piazza area at the rear of the grandstand.  Please note that Sandy park is a ‘smoke free’ zone in the stadium as well as the bars.  There is a smoking area at the front of the stadium next to the bike stands

When the Chiefs visited Brickfields in October, it was the Seventh game of the season and Albion had Won three and lost Three.  The Chiefs ‘tribe’ of supporters made the short trip down the A38 and Brickfields saw its biggest gate of 6871.  The tomahawks of the tribe were out , drums were beating, although some of the Albion supporters had arrows through their heads it was on the field where ‘the battle’ took place and some stunning play, and a try by ex Albion player Nic Sesterat only rubbed salt into Albion's wounds  A bright and sunny day saw the Chiefs win by 41 to 14.  This time Albion travel up the A38 to Sandy Park, with the Chiefs expecting an easy win

The Chiefs moved to their current ground in Sep 2006 at a cost of 15 million.  Phase one has a capacity of 8,000.  The planning of Sandy Park has been to create a modern sporting stadium and combine it with a conference and function venue, the function business helps to finance both the playing side of the club and future phases of physical development.

Well what is there to say about our closest ‘rivals’ the Chiefs, they have put a lot of money into both the ground and the team and are trying to knock Leeds off the top of the table in order to get promotion to the Premiership.  If the Chiefs can win every game in the season it will be a very close at the top of the table

The Chiefs have posted their team

Chiefs team:

Brett Sturgess, Sam Blythe with 2 tries, John Andress with 2 tries and 2 yellow cards, Lewis Stevenson with 3 tries, Tommy Hayes with one try and 2 yellow cards, Tom Johnson with 4 tries, Andy Miller, Richie Baxter (c), Clive Stuart-Smith with one try Gareth Steenson with 2 tries 41 conversion and 24 penalty kicks, Josh Drauniniu 13 tries and 1 yellow card, Matt Cornwell with one try, Bryan Rennie, Paul McKenzie with 8 tries, Sean Marsden with one conversion.

Replacements:Saul Nelson, Chris Budgen with 7 tries and 2 yellow cards, Dan Tuohy with 2 tries and 1 yellow card, Alan Miller with 2 tries and 1 yellow card, Ed Lewsey, Danny Gray with 30 conversions and 3 penalties, Tom Bedford with 3 tries.

Although chiefs have not selected Matthew Jess with 15 tries, Sean Marsden with 14 tries, or our ‘old’ Albion play Nic Sestaret with 5 tries.  So with their best kicker in the starting lineup and their second best kicker on the bench – this is going to be one hell of a game, Albion have got to be careful not to give away penalties as the Chiefs take no prisoners and will take advantage.

CD’s prediction - what can I say – local derby, 2 good teams, Its up to Chiefs to take the lead and Albion to defend, if Albion can defend it’ll give the Chiefs a run for their money, either side could run away with it if they get the upper hand in the first half.  Hate to say it but believe Chiefs will win –  by 3 points, unless Albion defend everything

Good luck to both sides – its going to be a good one.

After the match if you don't want to stay around Sandy Park why not pop into the Cowin Marquee and have a curry and a pint for just £3.50yes £3.50!

Even if you haven't been to the match you are welcome and we may have the DVD to show, now how is that for service!

National League One Data

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 4638 avg 7345 max	Gate 3266 avg 6871 max
Form home w w d w w w w w w l away w l w w w w w w w w	Form home w d w w w w w w l l w w away w w l l d w l l
Best home game 71 - 5 Tigers Worst away game Leeds 18 - 16	Best home game 47 - 6 Man Worst away game Leeds 49 - 18
Most points in a match 25 Gareth Steenson Chiefs 70 - 10 Moseley	Most points in a match 21 Kieran Hallett Albion 26 - 25 Nott'ham
Most tries in a match 3 Chris Budgen Otley 0 - 69 Chiefs Matthew Jess Chiefs 71 - 5 Tigers	Most tries in a match 2 Matt Hopper Albion 36 - 14 Esher Justin Mensah-Cover Albion 31 - 7 Tigers
Recent results Tigers 12 - 35 Chiefs Chiefs 40 - 21 B Blues Chiefs 38 - 7 Pirates Leeds 18 - 16 Chiefs Chiefs 12 - 12 Esher Knights 29 - 34 Chiefs Chiefs 76 - 21 Titans	Recent results Albion 23 - 15 Otley Albion 17 - 17 N Blues Man 5 - 31 Albion Albion 26 - 25 Nott'ham Cov 6 - 7 Albion Leeds 49 - 18 Albion Albion 20 - 12 Pirates
TRIES 15 Matthew Jess 14 Sean Marsden 13 Josh Drauniniu 8 Paul McKenzie 7 Chris Budgen 5 Nic Sestaret 4 Tom Johnson 3 Kevin Barrett Tom Bedford Ben Breeze Lewis Stevenson 2 John Andress Sam Blythe Neil Clark Mark Fatialofa Alan Miller Gareth Steenson Dan Tuohy 1 Simon Alcott Richard Baxter Chris Bentley Matt Cornwell Chris Cracknell Danny Gray Tommy Hayes Emyr Lewis Ben Moon Richard Pugh Bryan Renny Chad Slade Clive Stuart-Smith Stephen Ward	TRIES 5 Geoff Griffiths Matt Hopper 4 Gareth Evans Justin Mensah-Cover 3 Arran Cruikshanks Keni Fisilau Ryan Hopkins Tom Jarvis Wayne Sprangle 2 Mike Denbee Kieran Hallett Greg Nicholls 1 Ross Allan Jannie Du Toit Liam Gibson Ross Laidlaw Kyle Marriott James Owen Martin Rice Sean-Michael Stephen
Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Gareth Steenson 41 - 25 157 Danny Gray 30 - 3 69 Sean Marsden 1 - - 2	Kicking Points Con DG Pen Points Kieran Hallett 23 2 27 133 Ross Laidlaw 11 - 11 55 Alex Davies Alex 2 - 3 13
Discipline SinBin John Andress (2) Kevin Barrett Richard Baxter Chris Budgen (2) Josh Drauniniu Tommy Hayes (2) Alan Miller Richard Pugh Dan Tuohy	Discipline SinBin Arthur Brenton Arran Cruikshanks Gareth Evans Keni Fisilau (3) Tom Jarvis Sean-Michael Stephen (2)

Weather forecast

Current forecast light rain max daytime temp 12^oC with south easterly winds up to 16mph.

Officials for the day

Referee: John Paul Doyle
Touch judges: Keith Lewis, Lloyd Jackson
Assessor: Tony Spreadbury

(as announced on  Rugby365)

According to the statistics JP gives away more penalties that are converted into 3 points than others and has awarded 10% of the penalty tries this season but his yellow card count is far lower than other referees.