Spy in the Camp - London Welsh

By Frank Stormont & Stonehouse
March 19 2009

Albion travel to within 5 miles of the home of rugby on the final weekend of this seasons RBS 6 Nations. Meanwhile Georgie Rozario will be on the pitch 24 hours before, hopefully, as she lines up against Scotland.

This Weekend

v
Welsh v Albion
Sunday 22 March
K.O. 3 pm

At frustratingly short notice due to their longer run in the Trophy, London Welsh host Albion this Sunday afternoon at Old Deer Park, kicking off at 2.30pm. The fixture was postponed at short notice due to a frozen pitch back in January. All the other fixtures in this rugby hot spot in SW London (Quins and Twickers are a mile or so down the A316, London Scottish and Richmond are a stone's throw away across the park) were shelved the previous day. The RFU man gave the go ahead 24 hours previously, failing to recognise what was obvious to the considerable experience of the hosts and the lesser nous of this author. Disappointment for an Albion squad who had travelled up the previous afternoon and a small, but dedicated posse of fans who turned about en route.

LW are a club with a great little ground situated in a Royal Park overlooked by the pagoda in Kew Gardens. They also have a HUGE history as the spiritual home of Welsh rugby in the capital. They regularly host prestigious social events for the great and good for the community across the Severn and the clubhouse is littered with memorabilia of past international and Lions players. Think Jimmy Peters, but a lot more recent! Given this immense heritage, the club are slowly coming to terms with the fact that they are punching below their weight.

The City Boy glamour of Quins and the success of their Irish counterparts are constant reminders of the untapped potential. Expect to see a little less LW and a little more "Dragons" as they look to polish up their marketing in the coming season. They share the ground with a number of other sports clubs which limits their options for pure rugby-oriented development. With HM the Queen as landlord the possibilities for Redrow-style modern stands are remote. Their crowd maxes out at 2000 for this season, so they won't get rich quick that way. Consequently, Welsh are also looking at staging some fixtures at Brentford FC (just the other side of the Thames) to capitalise on what they see as lost revenue when the big names come knocking. Hard commercial reality is not absent and there is a keen desire to capitalise on what is a favourite on the ND1 fixture lists. Us country boys love a trip to "Smoke"! (Josh Lewsey turned up last year and got some career advice from our own Southway Janner.)

The club were significantly one of the "Quick Six" who threw their weight behind the Championship/GP2 concept and they are no strangers to the corridors of power at HQ. If all of this sounds a tad familiar to Albion fans, it will come as no surprise that they want Prem status, too. With access to the Welsh community in the capital, there are obvious playing possibilities for progress from the Welsh Prem to the larger game in England - just don't turn off the locals by over-emphasing the "foreign" history.

A glance at the table shows LW a place above Albion with a game in hand with both clubs trailing the Pirates by a fixture as well. This will have a major influence on the fixture. Due to our early bath in the Trophy, our players have lacked match practice of late. Our opponents have a much tighter schedule in the run-up to the end of the season and also carry the burden of being unexpectedly bundled out ot the knock-out tournament by Midlands dark horses, Moseley.

When seen at close quarters just after Xmas, Welsh made short work of Sedgley Park, putting 60 unanswered points past the Northerners. Their chunky, but mobile pack are ably supported by a determined back division. There was a collective will that is annoyingly absent from Albion on similar occasions. There is also a sudden jump in the points diff column going up a notch in ND1. Beware.

When questioned off the field, one of the Welsh pack commended the atmosphere when playing at Brickfields back in September. (They went on to edge it 24-25.) A wry smile was flashed when asked how he rated playing against a 49 year old prop. Diplomatically avoiding any reference to the speed angle, he expressed respect for the way that all attempts to manoeuvre the scrum were stymied by our venerable CoR. There's life in the old dog still!

This is a key match for Albion as we approach the last month of so of 2008/9. On the back of a creditable away performance against Donny, we have fixtures with both Beds and the Pirates before Leeds when the curtain comes down. Hard to call and dependent on our team ruthlessly applying themselves, I forecast something akin to the last result - but reversed, of course! Get it right and we could well finish this term with a flourish and a giant fillip in morale to all.

Discipline-wise, LW are better behaved by 7 yellows to 9 and pen stats of 42/37 against 47/40.

No word on the opposition team list as yet; watch out for the following on the try front:

9
Paul Sampson
5
Tom Brown
4
Mark Harris
Micheal Tagicakibau
Aled Thomas
3
Allen Chiltern
Paul Mackey
Peter Murchie
2
Paul Doran-Jones
Aaron Lisschak
Tom Rock
Tom Tombleson

Fancy a week-end away? Welsh host the Ladies England v Scotland 6 Nations fixture on the Saturday afternoon featuring Albion's own Georgina Rosario... Top food in the clubhouse of all sorts and the internationals on TV. No coach from Plymouth, 3-4 hours by car or train.

National League One Data

League Table
		P	W	D	L	F	A	dif	TF	TA	BP	Pnts
1	Leeds	25	23	0	2	996	321	675	138	33	17	109

2	Chiefs	24	21	1	2	871	320	551	123	39	18	104
3	B Blues	25	18	0	7	679	407	272	92	44	14	86
4	Knights	24	17	1	6	692	438	254	81	51	13	83
5	Nott'ham	23	16	0	7	723	389	334	97	42	16	78
6	Pirates	25	14	1	10	639	461	178	82	48	14	72
7	Welsh	23	14	0	9	563	460	103	64	54	11	67
8	Albion	24	13	2	9	504	488	16	55	60	7	63
9	Cov	24	11	0	13	496	520	-24	66	68	13	57
10	Titans	26	11	1	14	677	721	-44	87	91	11	53
11	Moseley	22	9	0	13	559	557	2	70	79	13	49

12	Esher	24	9	1	14	488	642	-154	61	83	9	47
13	N Blues	24	4	2	18	317	820	-503	37	112	4	24
14	Tigers	24	4	0	20	350	925	-575	47	127	7	23
15	Man	25	2	0	23	361	876	-515	47	127	10	18
16	Otley	24	2	1	21	323	893	-570	34	123	6	16

ADJUSTMENTS

Nottingham -2 points
luding an un-registered player in their match squad for the match against Bedford played on 26th October.

Rotherham Titans -4 points
Back row forward Barry Jacobsz 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
Welsh	59/52	46/35	78	42/37	5/3	7/2	7/8	0/0
Albion	54/57	42/31	78	47/40	2/2	1/2	9/16	0/0

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

Saturday 21 March
Esher	v	Coventry
Moseley	v	Exeter Chiefs
Newbury Blues	v	Doncaster Knights
Sedgley Tigers	v	Bedford Blues
Sunday 22 March
London Welsh	v	Plymouth Albion

Side by side

Gate
1164 avg 1931 max

Gate
3283 avg 6871 max

Form
home w l w w l l l w w l l w
away w l w l w w l w w w w

Form
home l w d w w w w w w l l w w
away l w l w w l l d w l l

Best home game
60 - 0 Tigers
Worst away game
Leeds 35 - 10

Best home game
47 - 6 Man
Worst away game
Leeds 49 - 18

Most points in a match
21
Aled Thomas
Welsh 31 - 16 Knights

Most points in a match
21
Kieran Hallett
Albion 26 - 25 Nott'ham

Most tries in a match
2
Paul Sampson
Welsh 40 - 12 N Blues

Most tries in a match
2
Matt Hopper
Albion 36 - 14 Esher
Justin Mensah-Cover
Albion 31 - 7 Tigers

Recent results

Welsh	39 - 25	Otley
Titans	7 - 20	Welsh
Welsh	16 - 21	Chiefs
Welsh	40 - 12	N Blues
Leeds	35 - 10	Welsh

Recent results

Knights	28 - 23	Albion
Tigers	11 - 27	Albion
Albion	20 - 33	Titans
Chiefs	29 - 0	Albion
Albion	23 - 15	Otley

TRIES
9
Paul Sampson
5
Tom Brown
4
Mark Harris
Micheal Tagicakibau
Aled Thomas
3
Allen Chiltern
Paul Mackey
Peter Murchie
2
Paul Doran-Jones
Aaron Lisschak
Tom Rock
Tom Tombleson
1
Darrell Ball
Matt Corker
Hugo Ellis
Simon Etheridge
Dan George
Aaron Hopkins
Hywel Jenkins
Sunia Koto
William Lawson
Wame Lewaravu
Ed Lewis-Pratt
Aaron Liffchak
Mike Powell
Ed Pratt
Dom Shabbo
Sunia Koto Vuli

TRIES
6
Matt Hopper
5
Geoff Griffiths
Justin Mensah-Cover
4
Gareth Evans
3
Arran Cruikshanks
Mike Denbee
Keni Fisilau
Ryan Hopkins
Tom Jarvis
Wayne Sprangle
2
Liam Gibson
Kieran Hallett
Greg Nicholls
James Owen
Sean-Michael Stephen
1
Ross Allan
Alex Davies
Jannie Du Toit
Ross Laidlaw
Kyle Marriott
Martin Rice

Kicking Points	Con	DG	Pen	Points
Mark Harris	25	3	19	116
Aled Thomas	20	2	22	112
Ed Pratt	1	-	1	5

Kicking Points	Con	DG	Pen	Points
Kieran Hallett	23	2	27	133
Ross Laidlaw	12	-	11	57
Alex Davies	7	-	9	41

Discipline

SinBin
Tom Brown
Paul Doran-Jones
Aaron Liffchak
Aaron Lisschak (2)
Mike Powell
Sonia koto Vuli

Discipline

SinBin
Arthur Brenton
Arran Cruikshanks
Gareth Evans
Keni Fisilau (3)
Tom Jarvis
Sean-Michael Stephen (2)

Spy in the Camp - London Welsh

Posted by: Unofficial Plymouth Albion (IP Logged)

Date: 19/03/2009 10:25

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