Matson Preview

Bridgwater and Albion travel up the M5 to Gloucester on Saturday to play Matson RFC in their final South West One (West) fixture of the season.

Currently their hosts are in fourth place in the table with 73 points from their 15 victories while the Albion are ninth with 63 from 13 wins.

When the two sides met at College Way on the opening day of the season back in September it was Albion who ran out 27-6 victors, however head coach Simon Morrell knows that his side face a tough game.

“This fixture sums up our season really because it is a trip to play against a side near the top of the table with far from our full strength team, in fact we may be missing 10 or so of the strongest side that we would like to field, so this will be another test of character.

“In fairness to the boys however the one thing that we have gained this season is the tenacity and positive mind set irrespective of the team that we are fielding, which will put us in good stead looking to next season.However the hope is that we can go up and competitive and everything is possible.”

Simon went on: “This season we have won 13 games and in truth we have achieved that success with an average of eight players out through injury across the season which is very frustrating, especially when you think that we could so easily have had four or five more wins.

“One good thing that has come from this is the depth of the squad which is brilliant, in fact we probably only need to add a couple of more players for next year.

“We have spoken to all of the players and it looks like everybody is going to stick with us next year apart from Dan Kemmish who needs to have time to relax at the end of the season, but we’d love to have him on board in 2017-18.

“There are so many players that we have been missing for most of the season, people like Rob Allen, Rob Thompson, Nick Bradley and John Hill. In addition to this we are talking to a back row who we think will sign and a couple of others.”

The head coach added: “However despite the frustrations that have been caused by the number of injuries we have suffered as a club we are in a strong position because we have got another five or six boys who have showed that they can more than compete at this level, which is great news for us going forward. “

A reminder that Bridgwater and Albion RFC host England Under 16s v Wales Under 16s at College Way on Sunday April 30^th, kick off 2pm.

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