L.W. - Albion match report from the Kassam Stadium by HitR
Team talk
By noibla
September 29 2013
Albion Come to Grief at the Kassam. The first half of what eventually turned out to be a one sided affair wasn’t all that one sided. Played at a breathless pace by both sides, the lead was taken by Albion on the 5th minute after early pressure was rewarded with a very kickable penalty. Mugford and his trusty boot did the rest. The Exiles responded in kind 3 minutes later and it was 3-3. From the restart Albion kicked deep and looked to re-assert their slight territorial advantage. The Welsh were forced to kick to touch, and then began Albion’s set piece nightmare. Winning Albion’s lineout, Welsh broke quickly and decisively from their own half, Elder brought down Jewell 5 metres out but the offload led to Denbee crossing for the home side’s first try. Comfortably converted by Ross. 10-3 Another deep restart, and this time Welsh were pinged for crossing in their own 22 and Mugford again, kept Albion in touch. 10-6.
The match was being played at a startling pace and even the London Welsh supporters around me felt that it was a really good, even game. More Albion pressure led to another penalty against Welsh and for the first time Mugford revealed that he is, in fact human, and his attempt ricochet of the post not quite going over.
The frenetic pace of the game was leading to some scrappy play and the resultant knock-on’s by both sides, to a number of scrums. It was becoming clear that Albion were going to have their hands full and generally conceded possession at the scrum irrespective of the head.
Another penalty on the Albion 22 was despatched by Ross (13-6) and we also lost Davey McGregor at the same time with a rather nasty looking gash to the head.
Generally speaking, both Toby HB and Nonu more than held their own in the centres with Nonu making significant inroads on a couple of occasions with ball in hand, and THB, sitting slightly deeper, putting in trademark ‘big hits’. On 30 mins, I made a note that we were not coping well with the London Welsh set piece power game. Prescient it might have been, but one didn’t need a crystal ball to know how the game was going to develop.
Elder was assured under the high ball, but possibly taking it into contact a little too often and Woods and Bowen ran hard at the Welsh defence. But most of their efforts were from deep and Albion weren’t able to exploit the undoubted pace and talent on offer in that department.
On 39 mins, after more high tempo, but rather tatty rugby, Albion gain a penalty 7m inside their own half. Elder elects to go for the posts, and slots a wonderful 3 points.
13-9.
And I’m afraid, that’s as good as it got.
On the stroke of half time, Ross bangs over another penalty for Welsh. HT 16-9
From half time onwards, interrupted only by deep Albion restarts, London Welsh took up more or less full time occupation inside our half. Clearly, the strategy was to take as many scrums as possible, force the penalty and take the points. It was a strategy that was executed with some success.
On 48 mins, Ben Rogers came on for Tom Harrison. But 2 mins later Welsh go over following intense pressure on the Albion Line. Ross kicks the extras. 23-9.
Albion were starting to make unforced errors and a kick out on the full had them back well inside their half. The inevitable line-out infringement led to a number of re-set scrums from which Welsh eventually took another 3 points. 26-9
It was going to be a long old second half.
Albion seemed determined to go through the whole gamut of lineout and scrum infringements and it didn’t appear to concern London Welsh whether the referee was finding in their favour or not. The result tended to be the same: a penalty to Welsh which was either kickable or from which they would exert more pressure on the Albion 5m line.
On 56 mins, Nonu gave way to Stevens and on 59, Morton left the action and Shields came on. Pressure was being heaped upon Albion and eventually they succumbed to their 1st yellow of the day and SMS left for a breather on 64 mins. This unfortunately left Albion a man down in the pack and 5m out from their line.
Welsh scrummaging power duly forced the referee to conclude enough was enough and he headed under the posts arm aloft. One easy conversion later and it was 33-9.
In all fairness to Albion, with a man down, the remaining 14 tackled like demons and gave their all. In the loose and at the breakdown they matched Welsh who never looked like they were going to run riot through Albion’s defence. But then, they didn’t have to.
Unfortunately, stoutly defending another ruck phase on their line, Ien A-L deliberately knocked on and saw yellow. A pity, he’d only been on 3 minutes as a replacement for Dan Williams. 68 minutes gone and we’re down to 13 against a £1.5 million professional side with gargantuan front rows coming out of every orifice….
At the same time as Ien had made his briefest of bows, Rowley had come on for Ruairi.
On 72 mins Welsh got their converted bonus point try to take the score to 40-9.
From then on, despite Welsh persisting with the set piece strategy to achieve the inevitable penalty, Albion remained commendably resolute and even had a spell of possession in side the Welsh 22. Shanners came on for the excellent Mugford and the match slightly fell back into a scrappy period of high tempo, high error rugby.
Despite this reversal, there are a number of positives to take out of this match: the forwards, despite being outgunned at the scrum have proved themselves to be adept in the maul, both offensively and defensively, and competitive at the breakdown. Today’s lineout although poor, has generally shown improvement. When our injured forwards are returned to rude health we’ll have a stronger pack.
The backs are excellent: swift and ambitious in the back three, sure footed, brave and forceful in the centres. We have a goal kicker in Mugford who looks to be on target for a 90% + season and two excellent 9’s
Are we downhearted!? Well, yes we are a bit. But we also know we can play a lot better. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Could be worse; look at Bedford!
Have a good week. Scottish up next and we did the double over them last season.
Richard did say on another post that the crowd was only 999, and thats for the ex prem side who plan to go straight back up ????
Many thanks again to Richard, aka HitR for another excellent report on our travels.
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"How many more times,Ref?"
Come cheer up, my lads - 'tis to glory we steer!
Come cheer up, my lads - 'tis to glory we steer!
Minor presentation point - fewer blank lines to cut down on the scrolling, please? Keep up the good work for those "trapped" at home.
Come cheer up, my lads - 'tis to glory we steer!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:09:29:14:24:15 by hills22.