Spy in the Nottingham Camp

By Frank Stormont
April 13 2007

A look at the weekend ahead. With Albion squad to play Nottingham. Starting line up changed but Jake Childs added to the possible bench.

Squad 

Tim Mathias

James Owen

Scott Zimmerman

Mike Lewis

Ben Gulliver

Tom Hayes

Brett Stroud

Chris Lowrie

Ed Lewsey

Ed Barnes

Nic Sestaret

Keni Fisilau

Regardt van Eyk

Tom Arscott

Nat Saumi

Matt Newman

Sila Va'Enuku

Arran Cruickshanks

Andy Williams

Richard Oxley

Gareth Evans

Dan Smith

Jake Childs

Bench from

Spy in the Nottingham Camp

Brickfields 3pm

Saturday 14th April

This is the match that was rescheduled from 17th February after matches had to be rearranged due to National Trophy fixtures.

The result of this fixture will not effect the position that either side are in the table but a good win for Albion will greatly improve their chances of coming 3rd at the end of the season. With an outside chance of coming second!

Nottingham's performance has dropped off recently having only one of their last 6 matches, Sedgley Park 50 - 0 at home.

Three ex Albion players regular appear for Nottingham with Tom Barlow picking up most of the kicking points for them and has only missed 1 of the last 14 matches. He sits 9th in the National League One point scorers this season with 210 points including a drop goal and 3 tries.

Nic Rouse has made 10 starts and 2 replacements for Nottingham in the past 14 matches scoring two tries on the way. He was also named captain against London Welsh at home earlier this year. Nic had 22 starts for Albion last season with three replacement appearances and a try.

Ryan Hopkins has not been doing so well compared with Nic and Tom whilst he has been on the pitch for 13 of the last 14 matches he has only started 6. Ryan had 17 starts for Albion last year with 11 replacements and a try.

Nottingham's gates are not big with attendances between 1003 and 1425 over the last 7 home matches. They do not travel well only winning twice away from home, only one side has a worse record and that is Moseley.  

Nottingham RFC official site will be posting a preview of the match on Friday Here

15 - Full Back - ROHAAN NIRMALENDRAN

14 - Right Wing - JOSH KAY

13 - Outside Centre - TIM MOLENAAR

12 - Inside Centre - ALEX DODGE

11 - Left Wing - DAVID JACKSON

10 - Outside Half - TOM BARLOW

9 - Scrum Half - ROB SPRINGALL

1 - Loose-head Prop - NEIL FOWKES

2 - Hooker - JOE DUFFEY

3 - Tight-head Prop- NIGEL HALL

4 - Lock - NIC ROUSE

5 - Lock - LEE MORLEY

6 - Blindside Flanker - CRAIG HAMMOND (capt)

7 - Openside Flanker - LUKE SHERRIFF

8 - No 8 - TIM STANNARD

Replacements: RYAN HOPKINS, MATT PARR, SAM RAVEN, DAN MONTAGU, WILL NELSON, BEN THOMPSON

 

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Last meetings

22 October 06
Nottingham 14
Plymouth Albion 13

Attendance: = 2272

Albion travel to Meadow lane on a very wet day but come away with just one point and allow Pirates into second place in the league.

No score for Albion in the second half although according to reports there was full commitment and Ed Lewsey thought he was going to get a try before being called back by the ref.

Ex Albion player Tom Barlow kicked the conversions for Nottingham.

2nd loss away from home in a row, Albion will need to do well at Newbury next week to stay in contention at the top of the table.

This is ... Report  Opponents Report

Team: Wihan Neethling, Ed Lewsey, Nat Saumi, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Martin Rice, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Ben Gulliver, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Tom Hayes Replacements: Arran Cruickshanks(used), David Delaney(used), Jon Fabian(used), Tim Mathias, James Owen(used), Brett Stroud(used), Chris Lowrie(used)

Scorers :- Tries Nigel Cane Penalties 2x Wihan Neethling Conversions Wihan Neethling

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Tables

Top Try scorers in league

 

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Predictions

Rugby Round up

Albion are up to fourth and have lost just once at The Brickfields this season. This is their third home game on the bounce and, in the previous two, Albion have notched up ten tries without conceding any. Nottingham’s poor away form continued last week with a high scoring defeat at Moseley. With only two wins away from Meadow Lane all season the money has to be on the home side to win by twenty points.

Rugby Times

Albion by 14

BetFred

Give the match to Albion by 15 points

Frank

With Nottingham's lack of recent form I expect Albion to do well and pull further away from Pirates in the league table picking up all 5 points. My prediction would be 32 - 8.

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The only other match in National League One is Newbury v Pertemps there are a couple of Cornish teams attending Twickenham, so I am told, but I think these are in some minor competitions.

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Visiting fans

Tickets can be purchased at the gate and for this match only Kids go Free!.

	Ground	Seated grandstand
Adult	£12	£17
Senior	£9	£14
Student	£9	£14
Child	FREE	£10

Ground Information

Car park £3

Programme £2

Food/beer
Good selection of hot food such as pasties and curry. Beer at £2 a pint in the Ryearch Village bar upto 30 mins before kick-off.

Please note the Burger bar outside the ground is not part of Plymouth Albion

How to get there

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Albion issues

I have no news on any changes to the status of players fitness.

Nigel Cane has stated in the press that he will not be playing any further part in this seasons fixtures.

I expect that the squad will be very similar to that for last week against Pirates although Wihan may feature. Talk of some players moving on to higher levels is not expected to affect the squad named. (I have no knowledge of players leaving as far as I am concerned anything coming out now is just rumours!!!)

Nat Saumi has been playing well in the full back position with his strong defence. Chris Lowrie and Ed Lewsey have also been working well as has Ed Lewsey with Ed Barnes.

Ed Lewsey was named as Redrow's man of the match last week and came in second to Chris Lowrie for the Alllbion man of the match with Ben Gulliver coming in a close third.

Franks team: Nat Saumi, Tom Arscott, Regardt van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Ed Lewsey, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Scott Zimmerman, Mike Lewis, Tom Hates, Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie. Replacements: Matt Newman, Arran Cruickshanks, Wihan Neethling, Richard Oxley, Dan Smith, Gareth Evans, Andy Williams

 

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Warriors

Next match planned for the Warriors is at Brickfields 6:15 KO on Tuesday 17th April against Launceston. This is the last organised match of the season but means that some matches to complete the Tamar Shield fixtures may not be played.

 

 

Results/Fixtures
04 Sep	Westcountry Warriors	24	0	Launceston Dev.
10 Sep	Redruth Dev.	13	36	Exeter United
24 Sep	Redruth Dev.	21	21	Westcountry Warriors
02 Oct	Exeter United	22	22	Launceston Dev.
08 Oct	Westcountry Warriors	58	7	Exeter United
16 Oct	Launceston Dev.	10	17	Redruth Dev.
23 Oct	Launceston Dev.	21	17	Westcountry Warriors
06 Nov	Exeter United	7	27	Launceston Dev.
12 Nov	Redruth Dev.	10	27	Westcountry Warriors
20 Nov	Exeter United	3	25	Westcountry Warriors
09 Dec	Exeter United	43	5	Redruth Dev.
07 Jan	Redruth Dev.	18	5	Launceston Dev.
16 Jan	Launceston Dev.	14	31	Exeter United
06 Feb	Launceston Dev.	5	6	Westcountry Warriors
11 Feb	Westcountry Warriors	42	0	Redruth Dev.
10 Mar	Exeter United	28	21	Redruth Dev.
20 Mar	Launceston Dev.	29	31	Redruth Dev.
09 Apr	Redruth Dev.	17	31	Launceston Dev.
17 Apr 18:30	Westcountry Warriors	v		Launceston Dev.
22 Apr	Redruth Dev.	v		Exeter United

 

Fixtures with no dates set
Exeter United	Westcountry Warriors
Launceston Dev.	Exeter United
Westcountry Warriors	Redruth Dev.
Westcountry Warriors	Exeter United

 

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Ladies

The Ladies travel to Thirsk for their last fixture of the season this weekend.

The squad have decided to make the weekend of it and will spend Saturday "training" at Alton towers before travelling the remainder of the journey in two minibuses.