Albion Done In At Donny
By HitR
September 7 2014
For the travelling supporters, mainly stuffed into the bottom left hand corner ofDoncaster’s impressive stand, it was a day to forget. The expectation and optimism in the supporter's camp had evaporated by the final whistle after an Albion performance best described as "error-strewn". Leading up to the match Albion had suffered a string of unfortunate injuries and an administration blow when it was discovered that Cameron Zeiss wasn't EQP qualified and had to be released. James Shanahan, in the absence of Cusack, and Rayners’ form to date, picked himself at 10. Sadly for Albion he lasted a mere 7 minutes, going off with a torn hamstring which is likely to keep him out for at least 3 months.
The match, more than adequately covered by The Herald and Paddy Marsh on the official website, was a cagey affair for the first 30 minutes. Albion probably had the best of the exchanges, despite Donny missing an early penalty, but making crucial errors in the red zone which allowed Donny to clear their lines.
My notes on 30 minutes remark that “famous last words, but most of the action has been in the Donny half”. I wish I'd never made the note, for 2 minutes later, with numbers out wide, Paul Jarvis went over for Donny's first try, ably converted by Flockhart. A few minutes later and Tyler Hotson crashed over from a ruck and it was 14‐0 in the blink of an eye.
Albion were making errors aplenty, seemly keen to run through the entire gamut of handling misdemeanours. In the mean time, Neale Patrick suffered what seemed to be a serious injury departing the action with his arm in a sling.
Half time wasn't necessarily a time for somber reflection on the score, but more for optimism that Albion would get it right in the second half, curing themselves of the error virus which had afflicted them in the first 40 minutes. Unfortunately, despite huge and urgent endeavour by the Albion lads, absolutely nothing seemed to go right for them and the harder they tried (and make no mistake, they did try hard) the more errors they committed.
Rayner, who did grow into his role at 10, slotted a couple of penalties - one from 45 metres, but it just wasn’t enough. Doncaster did nothing extraordinary, but they did the simple things right; kept their shape, defended as though theirs lives depended upon it and took their chances when they came. Crucially, their error count was laudably minimal.
Albion's line out was commendably secure and did threaten on a couple of occasions when Rayners accurate boot took us within 5m of the Donny line. But handling errors did for us on each occasion. The scrum was not as secure as I was expecting. I don't expect to see us pushing other teams off the ball and bullying them into submission, but I do want to us to control our own put in and reduce the penalty count. As the game went on, the old failings of last year were becoming disappointingly apparent and the penalty count began to rise. Something to work on for Nottingham next week who, by all accounts, have that part of their game functioning well.
The final two significant moves of the game summed up Albion's day: a high ball was mishandled straight into the arms of a Donny runner who had the simple task of slipping the ball to his right for a straight forward run in. The try, which followed a simple penalty to Donny, was well converted from the touch-line to give them a 27‐6 lead. The other incident, at the other end, saw the ball slip from an Albion hand as the Donny try line beckoned. C’est la vie.
At the final whistle, disappointment was etched on every Albion face - players and supporters. We all expected a better start to the season. I managed to catch a few words with Shanner’s, Rhys and Toby after the match and they were bitterly, bitterly disappointed. Still, it's not all doom and gloom. We have by my estimation, a better, more balanced side than last year. Perhaps, this season, we have broken the pattern of recent seasons and the team will grow as a unit culminating in a magnificent finale. One thing is for sure, we won't see them play like this again this season.
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Looking forward to some entertaining rugby on Saturday against Nottingham. Come on Albi, Oi Oi Oi.
I had been optimistic up until I watched the Saints Gloucester game. Gloucester, with a similar number of new players to Albion, clearly lacked team cohesion. I then feared a similar fate for us at Donny. It was the error count and the failure to take the good opportunities right at the start of the game that did for us.
Positives were a much improved line out and the scrum is a step up on last season although more work needs to be done.
This week will be a busy one for both the skills coach and the scrum coach.
The down side is that the next away match is again in Yorkshire. Lets hope the next 2 weeks training will see a much improved performance at Rotherham.
I like wingers running with the ball!
Without a back up flyhalf, fullback and centre I think we will struggle. the injuries we have sustained has certainly put a strain on the squad early in the season.