Match Report Friday evening Albion .v. Rotherham
By A Nomad
November 30 2013
Conditions were good for rugby, it was not too cold and there appeared to be only a little breeze. The crowd was down on last week but there were a surprising number of supporters from Rotherham. With one or two notably loud voices missing from the Redrow Stand the crowd were rather subdued.This was a game of ‘What ifs’ and ‘If only’. Albion kicked off playing with the wind towards the Club House. Titans played the ball through several phases but eventually Albion got a turn over and they then went through several phases. Both teams were playing running rugby, what a change to what we have witnessed in previous seasons.
Things were fairly even but Titans, using the ball to do the work with some good inter-passing, created holes put speedsters in the clear. Tom Bowen came to the rescue with a superb tackle just short of the try line and right under the posts. He had raced across from his wing having been a considerable distance from the action. This was very similar to a tackle he made in the game against Bedford. He re-gained his feet, released the player and then attempted to seize the ball. Penalty to Albion for holding-on. Danger over, at least for a short while.
The Rotherham fly-half Socino looked as if he had sustained an injury but he stayed on the pitch. A few moments later Albion were caught off-side and he stepped up and successfully made the penalty but in so doing he aggravated his injury and had to be replaced.
Albion came charging back with some great play firstly by the backs this resulted in a ruck on Albion’s right and inside the Titans 22. The forwards then broke with Rhys Oakley feeding Sean-Michael who barged his way over the line to score a great team try. Then came the first of the ‘If only’ moments. Dan Mugford, playing his first game since leaving the field in the second win over Jersey stepped up to take the conversion. Sadly the ball went well to the right of the posts. Shortly after he had a shot at a penalty but the ball re-bounded off the right hand post and back into play. Don’t you love the bounce of a rugby ball? Having landed a metre or so from the try line it then bounced over the said line for Titans to touch it down and then re-start with a 22 drop out.
By now Albion were back in the game. Albion had a line out not far from where Sean-Michael had received his scoring pass. Albion lost the line out and Rotherham moved the ball out to their speedy backs. It did not look too threatening at first but they broke through and again with some good inter passing and scored a try. It was clear that Albion’s first up tackles were not stopping the Titans, frequently it was the second or third tackle that was required to stop an attack. The score was now Albion 5 Titans 17.
Yet Albion did not lie down. Chris Elder received the ball on the hall way line from a turn-over. There were acres of space behind the Titans attackers and he put up a high kick which Tom Bowen ran after like only he can. The one Rotherham player back anywhere near the ball had at least a 10 metre start but he found himself running in treacle or so it seemed when compared to Tom. Tom won the race and scored. Dan Mugford had his forth kick at goal but again it went wide of the post. Albion were awarded another penalty in a central position on about the 10 metre line and this time Chris Elder was given the task of taking the kick. Alas the result was the same as all the previous attempts at goal.
At the start of the second half Titans increased their lead with another penalty but again Albion came back and enjoyed a lengthy period of pressure close to the Titans try line. Titans were under pressure and conceding free kicks and penalties. At this point Albion had the upper hand in the scrums. However following another penalty Captain Rhys elected to go for goal which was given to Dan to take but yet again he failed to find the target. Who knows what might have happened had Albion gone for yet another scrum. One understands the need to get the scoreboard ticking off especially when so far behind but would the pressure of defending a scrum caused Titans to concede something more than a penalty? Their discipline record is worse than Albion’s but we will never know the answer to that.
For most of the remaining minutes of the game it was mostly Titans pressure. They scorned a chance or two at scoring and did in fact convert a penalty so Albion were up against it. Several substitutions were made. First, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ben Rogers who came on in the front row replacing Max Crumpton and Tom Harrison. Ben had in fact been a blood replace for Tom who had sustained a nasty cut to his head early in the game. Then came a change for the two half backs then Rob Langley entered the fray in place of Ien Ashcroft-Leigh. The final two substitutions with about 10 minutes to go saw Ben Woods replace Heath Stevens and Dave Morton completed the entire replacement of the front row. Clearly the changes were an attempt to wrestle the game back from Rotherham.
Eventually the Titans did put the game out of reach with their third try with very little left on the clock. This seemed to spur Albion on as from the kick off in a good movement Tom Bowen scored his second try and at last we saw Albion score points with a kick. Declan Cusack realising that only seconds were left on the clock quickly made the conversion with a drop kick. If Albion were to savage a losing bonus point they would have to score again
straight from the kick off again. They kept the ball alive but things broke down on the half way line and the referee blew for ‘No-Side’.
Albion’s performance was an improvement on that against Bedford but three areas caused concern. The line-outs did not function particularly well and by the end of the match Albion were failing to get any ball from their own line-outs. As mentioned earlier the Titans were frequently able to break through the first tackle. Lastly there was the place kicking, it was dreadful.
There was no doubt that Rotherham were the better side but to match them on the number of tries but still fail to get a losing bonus point was frustrating. The missed conversions were the difference had they been taken the gap would have only been 7 points! Missing place kicks saps the moral of a team. It is easy to say we would have won had all the kicks been taken but a successful penalty kick changes the flow of a game.
However our pack played well and more than held their own at scrums. Also discipline has improved with fewer penalties being conceded. Clearly the team have yet to hit top form. To score three tries against a top team when not at one’s best is reason to hope for better things to come in the New Year.
It has come to light that following the Nottingham game Albion queried 8 decisions made against them at the scrum. The referees’ supervision panel agreed that only in two occasions was the correct decision made!
A Nomad
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Interesting to note about the scrums at Nottingham .
The kicking was not up to standard agreed , but and there is always a but , Dan only recently came back from injury and is a huge ask to get his statistics to match previous encounters, so not a big deal . I'm sure Dan will get back to where he was
I felt a few more questions of Roth's defence could have been asked . e.g. cross field kicks , grub kick through , kick over their flat defensive line . It worked on one occasion and very nearly worked on another .
A better effort but still lacking 80 minutes concentration .
No league home win this year 2013 . So lets hope early 2014 for a first home win of the season .
Plymouth Bred , Plymouth Born .
C'mon Albiiioooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
Come on Albion
