That was a must win game……..

Reflecting on the game against Midsomer Norton the Albion coach said: “This was one of those must win games for the team which created a lot of pressure in addition to that there was a large crowd including the 200 people from the Friends Dinner that made it even more.

“Our skipper Ollie Dunn lost the toss – the only thing he did lose all afternoon and he enjoyed an exceptional game. However this meant we played with a strongish wind in first half that was always going to make the second half more difficult.

“We talked pre match about how we wanted to play the first ten minutes of the game and fair play to all the lads they went out and executed the plan superbly. After that we kept control of the game, but, had to work hard and keep our structure to be able to do that. That is often difficult in lose games so the team deserve to be proud of their collective performance.

“We have developed a great mix within the squad of experience and youth, the experience coming from players like Dan Kemmish and Matt Ranson and the youth such as Jordan Buller who on only his second first team appearance grabbed two tries during the game.

“Others who have already gained a little experience like Kyran Devitt and George Sluman are demonstrating they can live with the intensity of the rugby at this level and are continuing to make improvements to their game.

“The scoreboard probably does not do MSN justice. They were a big powerful pack with a capable front row who gave our forwards some real competition. They never gave up as was proved by the fact the got their bonus point try with the last play of the game.

“Our back row Ollie Dunn, Nick Spellissy and George Sluman had a good balance to it and all worked hard – especially off the ball and line out specialists Dan Kemmish and Ethan Trebble-Westlake were dominant.

“I thought our wingers, Sam Britton and Oscar Tregenna, were exceptional and both had very strong games and made some great runs as did full back Kyran Devitt.

“The centres James Collings and Luke Plummer combined well with James varying his options by putting an occasional clever kick and Luke having some powerful line breaks. Our half backs Tom Fournier and Stu Heal controlled play for us well with Tom’s distribution being top quality and Stu having an exceptional game at fly-half.

The coach went on: “We still have some players missing like Taylor Buller, Micky Norman, Harry Collins, Shaun Mahoney, Ali Blundell, Rob Thomson, Nick Bradley and John Hill all of who will come back and add some real competition for places.

“It was great to see Rob Allen come on from the replacements bench today to continue his recovery and he reminded us again of what we have been missing by putting in a very strong run as soon as he touched the ball.

“We can take plenty of learning from the game and there are areas we certainly want to improve upon, it was by no means perfect but I was really pleased for the lads that they put in a great performance in front of so many supporters. I cannot recall us scoring as many points in one match in the past five years or so.

Once again the coach paid tribute to the Albion fans when he said: “We are very lucky to enjoy great support and the squad wanted to give a good result to the supporters on the last home game of the season.

The coach added: “The boys are going to have a night off from training on Tuesday this week but we will be right back on it on Thursday and with no match over the Easter weekend we will have another two good training sessions before the last league match of the season away to Matson on April 22nd.”

Category: 1st XV News, Previews / Reports -XV