Bridgwater and Albion RFC open the new season at Wellington on Saturday 3rd September

When the two sides met at Wellington back in April in South West One West it was the Albion who ran out the winners 34- 23 as a result of which they ended in 10th place in the league two places above the hosts.

Looking ahead to the opening game Geoff Sluman the Albion’s Director of rugby said: “We are all looking forward to the start of the new season and playing against Wellington will give us a really good benchmark because we played against them in the final match last season so it will be barometer of how things have gone.

“We are pleased with the way that pre-season has gone, overall its gone well but never perfect as we have hit a few challenges along the way with availability and injuries, but of course that’s just part and parcel of playing rugby, but nothing disastrous.”

Most of the Albion players who will be named in the squad on Saturday were with the club last season although there are likely to be a couple of new additions as well.

“We are pleased with the new players who have joined us but they wont all be playing on Saturday.”  Sluman added: “This season will be different because the structure of the leagues has changed so we are looking forward to facing new team.”

The Club says a big thank you for all the Player Sponsorship enquiries. We are working on the full list and will get back to you shortly.

Meanwhile Junior rugby training at the Albion will begin again on Saturday 4th September at 10am.  Games don’t get underway for them until the end of the month.

Many of the current Albion first team players have come up through the junior ranks so the club is always keen to encourage as many youngsters as possible to come along and join them.  B&ARFC have two new chairs of junior rugby- Joe Stradling has taken on the role for the age groups up to and including the Under 12s, while Ian Stone is responsible for the 12 to Under 18 ages groups.