Post by Communications Team on Dec 8, 2017 12:28:59 GMT
Match Preview by Glyn Barlow
This Saturday Birmingham Moseley host old friends Plymouth Albion, with the bitter taste of a poor defeat at Old Elthamians still in their memory.
Albion are currently riding high in 3rd place in National One, having win eight games to stand just four points behind Darlington Mowden Park.
Recent weeks have, however, seen relatively mixed fortunes with good wins over Hull Ionians 29-3, Ampthill 16-9 and Caldy 17-34 tempered with losses to Coventry 29-14 and Darlington 33-31 along with two draws against Rosslyn Park 26-26 & Old Elthamians 17-17.
Last season the two ex-Championship rivals reacquainted themselves with Albion winning both games 27-20 and 26-47. Birmingham Moseley will encounter a number of new faces in the Plymouth ranks since those fixtures. Wing Jack Arnott and prop Luke Chapman have joined from Cornish Pirates along with fly half Dan Mugford, back row Eoghan Grace from Coventry and prop Ricky Cano from Rotherham Titans.
So far this season Mugford has continued to underline his value as a points scorer currently leading the league with 135 (including seven tries) ably supported by hooker Rupert Freestone with 8 tries, possibly indicating an effective mauling game at close quarters.
Albion Head Coach Kieran Hallett will be hoping key back row player and captain Herbie Stupple may make an early recovery from a slipped disc picked up in early November, although there seems to be doubt over flying wing Jack Arnott who incurred an injury in last week’s win over Ionians.
For Birmingham Moseley this weekend demands a massive improvement on the performance at Old Elthamians if they are to have any chance of overcoming Albion. After a first 35 minutes that saw the teams standing on parity at five points all it’s hard to fathom how they could let their opponents score 21 unanswered points in just five minutes of play, particularly when Elthamians were down to 14 men for most of it. Clearly not helped by Greg King’s nasty injury early in the second half forcing Chris Brightwell into the backline, things continued to deteriorate with the home side picking up a further three tries before the final whistle.
This Saturday the team needs to cut down considerably in terms of errors, both in handling and infringements. Against a team like Albion, who are averaging over four tries per game, then there can be no relaxing in defence or it will be ruthlessly punished. That said Albion are not without their issues in regard to keeping discipline having picked up the most yellow cards in the league to date.
Have no doubt the turnaround required to win this week is considerable, but the team has shown they have the capability to perform at the required level. Now is the time to operate at that level consistently for the full 80 minutes and reignite their run of good form.
With the game being off today don’t forget you can book your seat on the Rosslyn Park coach (16th December) via all the usual online channels or just reply below. Only £10 for MSA members, £15 otherwise and only £5 for U16. Coach leaves the common at 10.30am.
Dean has managed to negotiate a reduced entrance of only £10 so you can watch Mose from only £20 for the day!
Post by kingsheathlad on Dec 16, 2017 11:45:45 GMT
Does the club know when a date will be announced for the Plymouth game. I saw the Coventry's game at DMP has been set now for 24 February, but there is 30 December as a free weekend next.
The game has to be played on the next official reserve weekend, 24th February, rather than free weekend. This was the case with last season's away fixture at Blaydon, however badly that affected us.
