A TITANIC JOURNEY FOR ALBION THIS SATURDAY
This Saturday the Plymouth Albion team travel nearly 300 miles to Rotherham for their first clash of the season with Rotherham Titans who they have only managed to beat four out of the fifteen times they have played them at Clifton Lane. The last time Albion came away triumphant was in the Championship in 2010.
However, after their relegation to Nat One last season Rotherham, who at present stand fourth in the league, but only five points ahead of Plymouth Albion, will be looking to punish the Plymouth pack. Especially as they have won the last four games on the trot, their match report from their match last week against Esher they quoted:
“But no one at Rotherham is getting carried away and we know we’ll face a massive challenge in our next game against Plymouth. So, it all starts again on Tuesday night at training and we’ll work harder, that’s the only way we’re going to get better.”
That said, Plymouth Albion were only a little more disciplined last weekend beating Bishop’s Stortford narrowly at home. But by no means are they resting on their laurels. Head Coach Kieran Hallett said ahead of this week’s match, “These matches are always slightly more difficult with so far to travel, the league is so tight there have been a lot of surprise results already this season and it’s still anyone’s league to take.
We have been training hard and we are ready for the next challenge. The Titans team has changed significantly since they were in the Championship and they will be eager to get back up there, but we take each match as it comes.”
Plymouth still have a few injuries to deal with, John Kelly and Dan Powell are still out, but with George Mills back in at flanker, captain Herbie Stupple at number eight and Davy McGregor back on the bench, there’s plenty of experience travelling to South Yorkshire this weekend.
The team for Saturday is subject to injury assessments but at present is as follows:
1 Will Norton, 2 Jamie Salter, 3 Dan Pullinger, 4 Dan Swain, 5 Kieran Westlake, 6 Rusi Tuima,
7 George Mills, 8 Herbie Stupple – captain, 9 James Tait, 10 Dan Mugford, 11 Jack Arnott, 12 Connor Eastgate, 13 Teegan Minkley, 14 Jon Dawe, 15 Matt Shepherd. Replacements: Davy McGregor, Lewis Pearson, Dean Squire, Luke Chapman, Cameron Setter
Albion kick off at 1400 this Saturday at Clifton Lane, Rotherham. Don’t forget to follow their twitter monkey to keep up with the match as it happens!
