Plymouth Albion Tame Toothless Tigers
Plymouth Albion 31-7 Sedgley Park

Sedgley Park’s misery continues after they went down to their eighth successive defeat, this time at the hands of Plymouth Albion who earnt themselves a bonus point in the process.

It was a bitterly cold afternoon in Plymouth with head warmers on prominent display throughout the stadium and it certainly took the visitors a while to warm up on the pitch, allowing Plymouth Albion Number 8 Gareth Evans to scythe through their defence with the first attack of the game.

Albion went ahead after 6 minutes through a Keiran Hallet penalty after Sedgley Park were penalised for not rolling away from the tackle area and the hosts went on to dominate the opening exchanges although with both sides struggling in the windy conditions, noticeably at the lineout, there was little in the way of genuine try-scoring opportunities.

Sedgley Park fly-half Phil Jones missed a simple chance to level the scores after 22 minutes and The Tigers were punished immediately after they conceded a knock-on in midfield; Albion turned the ball over and sent it wide quickly, opening up enough space for James Owen to play in Mensah Coker for the opening try of the game.

Straight from the resulting kick-off, Albion attacked their opponents again through some slick offloading out of the tackle from Mike Denbee, Sean-Michael Stephen and Greg Nicholls and when Sedgley Park were then penalised for not rolling away from the tackle area; Hallett extended Albion’s advantage to 11 points.

Sedgley Park did enjoy a period of pressure before the half time interval with flanker James Jones having a half chance on the far touchline and then Glenn Townson was stopped agonisingly close to the line at the other side of the field but eventually, as with so many chances over the course of the afternoon, the attacking sides made a handling error and Albion cleared there lines to ensure they went in at half time with their eleven point advantage in tact.

The hosts were given the chance to extend their lead early in the second half as Sedgley Park were again penalised for not rolling away from the tackle area and Hallett bisected the posts as Albion gradually pulled away from their toothless opponents.

The first half of the second half was a dour and scrappy affair but the game livened up in the 60th minute as Albion put the result beyond doubt in an impressive 5 minute spell.
It started with an all too familiar sight of Sedgley Park conceding a penalty, which Hallett kicked to touch deep inside the Tigers’ 22. Albion won the resulting line and set up a rolling maul and it was no surprise that this eventually led to a try for Denbee, as Albion are well practiced at this particular part of rugby.
Sedgley by this point had moved winger Chris Wilkinson to the scrum-half position with replacement Chris Hall moving out to the wing and Wilkinson was throwing the ball around, unfortunately, like a makeshift outside half and as a wayward pass from him caused disarray in the Tigers play; Albion stole the ball with Hallett then forcing play back deep into Tigers territory with an exemplary touchfinder.
Sedgley were unable to gather the ball at their own line up, knocking the ball forward and allowing Albion an attacking platform just yards from the line. Denbee attempted to wriggle over from the base of the scrum but when he was stopped short the ball found its way to Mensah-Coker who made no mistake, crossing the line for his second try of the game.
Hallett added the difficult conversion to bring the score to 26-0

Plymouth Albion secured their bonus point shortly afterwards as Arthur Brenton collected the ball from a kickoff and burst forward before playing in replacement wing Tom Jarvis to race over the line for Albion fourth try of the afternoon.

Mensah Coker’s and Jarvis’ scores were sandwiched by a consolation try from the visitors; scored by Chris Wilkinson after more good work from James Jones, first his back of the hand pass set up Ollie Cook to provide the attacking platform and then he took play on himself and was stopped close to the try-line before Wilkinson picked up and finished off the move.

There was nothing added to the scores after Jarvis’ try although Albion did look like they might register a fifth try when the impressive Denbee lead a breakout from their own 22, he was hauled down on the half way line before the ball was taken on by Jarvis; however, the referee then deemed a knock forward off Denbee’s knee to be a knock on, and the move was ended.

There was, however, still time for a comedy moment as Sedgley Park tried to force bring play into the Albion half as we approached the final whistle but unfortunately their momentum was stopped when the Sedgley ball carrier came forward and tripped over a couple of his own players who had taken rest on the ground, presumably through injury.
Unfortunately that was the closest The Tigers came to making a lasting impression on this match as the home side were soon confirmed as 31-7 victors allowing the spectators, at least those who weren’t yet frozen to their seats, to make a swift exit to the warmth of their own homes.

This was ultimately a disappointing afternoon for Sedgley Park; it is one of the longest trips of the season for them and it will feel like an even longer journey back up North on the back of what was their eighth successive defeat; a far cry from the opening couple of weeks when they were riding high in the top four.
The Tigers cannot be faulted for their work rate and they did have spells, in particular in the closing stages of the first half, where they dominated territory and possession. The sad truth for the visitors was that apart from the impressive James Jones and the handy Peter Swatkins they didn’t possess the quality that was needed to get into this game and it would have taken a poor performance from their hosts to allow this Sedgley side to take away any points from Brickfields.
The Tigers now have two successive home matches against Moseley and Esher and they can ill afford to lose both matches if they want to extend their five season stay in National League One.

Plymouth Albion will no doubt be pleased with a bonus point victory which takes them one point clear of rivals Cornish Pirates in the battle for seventh position, this despite the latter’s impressive win today at Bedford.
Albion made hard work of defeating what was, with all due respect, a very limited set of opponents and you feel that by keeping the ball with the forwards for such lengthy periods they were merely playing to the strengths of their visitors who had a decent set of forwards which Albion’s pack were unable to dominate.
On the occasions that Albion’s backs did get the ball they looked lively and were surely capable of putting a few more points on the board had they been allowed to get their hands on the ball more often, mind you some of their fans have been saying the same thing ever since the start of last season but the Albion game-plan is clear and on some occasions, like today, they will make hay against a side unable to put up much of a resistance.

N1Rugby Man of the Match: Mike Denbee (Plymouth Albion)
This man was everywhere today, forcing turnovers, making yardage in loose play and of course registering a crucial try early in the second half, a pretty simple choice for the man of the match award although opposing flanker James Jones deserves mention for his standout performance on a disappointing afternoon for the visitors.