Spy in the Polson Camp
Cornish all Blacks
By Frank Stormont
January 24 2008
Albion make their shortist trip on the season as they travel to Polson Bridge on Saturday hoping that they can repeat the score line they had when the 2 teams met in October. Warriors host Rosdlyn Park in the Canterbury Shield with the aim of holding onto top place!
This Weekend
v 
All Blacks v Albion
Saturday 26 January
K.O. 2 :30 pm
Also this weekend Warriors play hosts to Rosslyn Park in the Canterbury Shield at Brickfields KO 2pm. An ideal match for those unable to make the long trip over the boarder |
This should have been a holiday fixture week with two local derby matches in Devon and Cornwall. Devon take on Cornwall at Polson Bridge and also at Sandy Park.
Albion's squad as named in today's Herald
 |  Tim |  Richard |  Scott | |
 Jannie |  Tom |  Mike |  Mike | |
|  Chris | |
|  Ed |  Ross | |
 Nic | |  Brad |  Keni |  Emyr |
|  Nat | |
Bench from
 Nigel |  Arran |  Wihan |  James |  George |
 Gareth |  Colin |  Brett |  Adam |
At the beginning of the season this match may have been seen as a top v bottom fixture but after Albion's recent form it is a mid table v bottom and they are not so predictable!
Whilst Lanson have only won 3 matches their last home game against Titans was one of them, also Sedgley Park Tiger and London Welsh. All of these matches have been by just 3 points!
Jon Fabian, who moved from Albion over the summer is their top scorer on 63 points with 5 tries and the rest of the points with the boot, but Matt Jess has run in 9 tries of his own.
The All Blacks biggest gate came on the first day of the season when they hosted another Cornish side, the Pirates, on the first day of the season with a gate of 2995. With smaller crowds since then and with their match against Northampton being called off their average is 1200. The biggest gate last season was against Cambridge when they recorded 1291. Can we raise their attendance to a new high on Saturday?
On the down side for Lanson, they are likely to have to play the Northampton fixture mid week as the Saints will be expecting to go all the way in the EDF Energy National Trophy. Lanson are still in that competition and lost money on the trip to Nuneaton over the last two weeks.
No disrespect to the Launceston side but the Albion squad need a real boost of Saturday and a result like Northampton had over us would be a great positive to our side. When the sides meet in October Albion ran in 8 tries can we do it again? Also 7 of those were scored by the backs!
Jon Fabian and Wayne Reed have both been named on the starting line up for CAB.
From CaB Website
PLYMOUTH ALBION SATURDAY 26/1/08
We are recommending that people buy their tickets in advance for this match as it is likely to be our busiest match of the season and the weather will probably be inclement and not ideal queueing weather for those looking to buy tickets.
The Park and Ride system will be operating from 12:30pm from Launceston College and we recommend that where possible people use this system as most of the parking at the ground will be taken up by players, volunteers, match day sponsors and the 200 or so individuals receiving corporate hospitality. There will be very regular shuttles operating before and after the match between the ground and Launceston College. Similarly, there will be the usual bus operating around town and outside the Westgate.
More ...
Admission is Adults £10, OAPs £7 and Under 16s (accompanied) free
it looks like the grandstand is sold out
National League One Data
League Table | ||||||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | dif | TF | TA | BP | Pnts | ||
| 7 | Albion | 20 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 365 | 339 | 26 | 40 | 41 | 9 | 49 |
| 16 | All Blacks | 18 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 266 | 530 | -264 | 32 | 72 | 5 | 17 |
Points by type & Discipline Record | ||||||||
| Team | Tries | Cons | Con Rate | Pens | Drop goals | Pen try | Yell | Red |
| Albion | 37/41 | 27/25 | 73 | 37/21 | 0/7 | 3/0 | 8/15 | 0/0 |
| All Blacks | 32/69 | 20/46 | 63 | 21/26 | 1/0 | 0/3 | 8/7 | 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.
Recent meetings
06 October 07
Plymouth Albion 50
Cornish All Blacks 7
Attendance: = 2908
Albion play their best game of rugby this season and run in 8 tries gating the bonus point in 26 minutes of the 1st half.
The only other try of the match came from ex Albion player Wayne Reed after the Lanson pack went over the Albion line in the second half.
With many players giving good performances the sponsors must have had a difficult job picking their man of the match but they agreed with me Liam, the man to watch, Gibson.
All of the bench got on the pitch and with time to take part and Brad was asked to take on the kicking duties once Ross Laidlaw had been replaced
Team: Emyr Lewis, Liam Gibson, Arran Cruickshanks, Brad Davies, Nic Sestaret, Ross Laidlaw, Ed Lewsey, Tim Mathias, James Owen, Steve Barretto, Colin Stewart, Ben Gulliver, Brett Stroud, Jannie Bornman, Adam Kettle Replacements: Wihan Neethling(used), Nigel Cane(used), Martin Rice(used), Richard Oxley(used), Scott Zimmerman(used), Tom Hayes(used), Chris Lowrie(used)
Scorers :- Tries Adam Kettle Brad Davies Ed Lewsey 2x Liam Gibson Nat Saumi Nic Sestaret Wihan Neethling Conversions Brad Davies 4x Ross Laidlaw
Launceston
| Official Site | Fans Site NA | Local News |
| Player Profiles NA | getting to Polson Bridge NA | Club Contacts NA |
| pos | P | W | D | L | F | A | dif | TF | TA | BP | Pnts |
| 16 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 266 | 530 | -264 | 32 | 72 | 5 | 17 |
| Tries | Cons | Con Rate | Pens | Drop goals | Pen try | Yellow card | Red card |
| 32/69 | 20/46 | 63% | 21/26 | 1/0 | 0/3 | 8/7 | 0/0 |
| Gate 1200avg 2995max | Form home w l l l l w l w l away l l l l l l l l l | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best home game 10 - 7 Titans 34 - 31 Tigers 32 - 29 Welsh Best away game N Blues 24 - 23 | Worst home game 0 - 20 Esher Worst away game Albion 50 - 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most points in a match 17 Stuart Aldred All Blacks 34 - 31 Tigers Scott Ireland Cov 35 - 27 All Blacks | Most tries in a match 2 Marc Dibble All Blacks 32 - 29 Welsh Jon Fabian All Blacks 23 - 31 Nott'ham Matt Jess Cov 35 - 27 All Blacks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Recent results
| Coming Matches
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TRIES
| Kicking Points
Discipline
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NL1 Fixtures
| ||
| Coventry | v | Bedford Blues |
| Esher | v | Rotherham Titans |
| Exeter Chiefs | v | Cornish Pirates |
| Launceston | v | Plymouth Albion |
| Newbury Blues | v | Moseley |
| Northampton Saints | v | Sedgley Tigers |
| Pertemp Bees | v | Doncaster Knights |
| ||
| Nottingham | v | London Welsh |
Predictions
BetFred
NYA
RugbyRoundup
NYA
Rugby Times
Rugby Times have got Lanson to win by 6 points!
Franks Prediction
I would hope that Albion will put on a strong showing as they take on the All Blacks and come away with a solid win. At brickfields the backs scored 7 of our 8 tries and would be great if we could see that again. I have put Albion down for a strong win. by 20 plus points, with then try bonus. But then I put the last match down to be a close result and looked what happened Albion 5 Saints 44!
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Don't forget to put your own predictions into the calculator LINK
Weather forecast
Current forecast is sunny intervals max temp 11oC with Strong westerly winds
Officials for the day
Referee: John Paul Doyle
Touch judges: Darren Gamage, Mark Summerhayes
John has the second lowest Yellow Cards per match and average number of penalties have been converted to 3 points (3 per match) and has yet to award a penalty try or red card in his 8 matches this season. I can not find the last time he officiated against Albion.
Albion Matters
Warriors
The Warriors sit on top of the Canterbury Shield league table (Division One)
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts |
| Plymouth | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 217 | 172 | 45 | 19 |
| Blackheath | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 313 | 141 | 172 | 18 |
| Ealing | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 226 | 123 | 103 | 18 |
| Esher | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 193 | 183 | 10 | 13 |
| London Scottish | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 182 | 140 | 42 | 12 |
| Rosslyn Park | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 121 | 158 | -37 | 6 |
| Newbury | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 90 | 252 | -162 | 6 |
| Glamorgan Wanderers | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 79 | 252 | -173 | 0 |
Warriors host Rosslyn Park on Saturday with a 2:30 Kickoff. With Park only winning two of their 7 matches and travelling away from home it should be a good match if you're not making the trip across the boarder.
The Warriors have another fixture added to the list and will be away to Devon All Whites (Newton Abbot) next Saturday whilst the first team will be playing Pertemps in the EDF Energy National Trophy.
Ladies
The Ladies now have a 4 week gap before their next league match although the are hoping to set up a friendly match before they take on Bath.
Their match last week against league leaders Saracens had a disappointing result with Albion haveing most of the possession and territory in the second half they just failed to collect the 4th try that would have given them the win. Ladies 17 Saracens 19 More... Pictures
Georgina Rozario has been named to start in the England A side to take on the Nomads (female equivalent on Barbarians). She is hoping that she will be included in one of the away matches for England in the 6 nations and is happy to starting with the England shirt next weekend.
Interesting what they say about the parking.
Having seen the team in the herald today am really wondering what goes through the COR's head.......
What do some of the players have to do to be selected?????? Last weekend Nat played......or did he.We have a very decent full back in Emyr who is quite devastating in open play playing on the wing!!!!!!! Wihan is on the bench and should be playing on the wing(one player who wont be with us next year).George Davis has looked solid when playing this year not even called in from the bench.Instead we have Zimmo starting,if fit,from nowhere.He struggled badly in the army game and has only played for the warriors since.......the mind boggles.And i nearly forgot Brad at 10 to.
I remember posting something similar about twelve months ago....the season as far as promotion is well gone,even further than this time last year,and we should be looking forward to next year and building for that.Unfortunately this game to game philosophy is not planning ahead.Playing old mates is not the formula.We need to be blooding some of the youngsters now and until the end of the season.The excuse next year that they dont have the experience just wont wash anymore.Undoubtedly we are going to lose some players at the end of the season and if we are thinking seriously about promotion next season then we need to be doing proactive things now.
There is no doubt Albion should win this one but it might depend on which Albion side turns up - the one that played Saints last week and Exeter at Shady Park or the mediocrity wev'e seen all too often this season. It may come down to who wants the win most. The CABs are fighting for their survival in the league and they will certainly play until they drop.
Two players to look out for: a) Matt Jess the winger- when he has the ball in open space the home-fans' spirits rise (re: Liam Gibson) and b) Josh Lord the captain - his performance against Rotherham was inspirational, leading by example - just what we are asking for at Albion. Both would be very good signings for Albion should (and I really hope they don't) CABs get relegated.
crouch........touch...........pause..........engage
Having seen the team in the herald today am really wondering what goes through the COR's head.......
What do some of the players have to do to be selected??????
hear hear lithalking, couldn't agree more. Heres who i would pick at the moment....
15. Emyr
14. Wihan
13. Arran
12. Ross Allen
11. Nic
10. Brad
9. Ed.
8. Chris L.
7. Mike Denbee
6. Adam K.
5. Tom H.
4. Colin
3. Davis(if hes a tighthead, if not, scott z)
2. Oxo
1. Tim
16. Matt Newman
17. Ross Laidlaw
18. Kenni
19. Zimmo or George D
20. James Owen
21. Mike Lewis.
22. Brett Stroud.
But then again, Messrs Dawe and Rule have played just a bit more rugby than me!
Plymouth Bred,Plymouth Born.
C'mon Albiiioooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.I'll bring my camera with me just in case.
Don't think much of your smiley's B.P. it looks as if your settings have gone as well.
Like the selection. I'd have picked the same line up with Chris or Adam skippering.