WEEK 15 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND UP

Pete Drewett - brief stay at Plymouth

During the week when most of us were contemplating resolutions and festive excesses, Pete Drewett was left to ponder his rugby future having resigned as Director of Rugby at Plymouth Albion, writes Richard Grainger.

Drewett, the former Head Coach at Exeter Chiefs, and his assistant Phil Greening had been at the helm at Brickfields for less than a month, having replaced Graham Dawe at the end of November.

“The club has lost the support of a financial backer”, said a club spokesman, “in all the circumstances, Pete Drewett [and Phil Greening] did not feel able to stay with the club. We tried our best to keep the coaching team in place. We will maintain contact to explore options.” Whether this may mean the return of Drewett and Greening is unclear as neither Drewett nor anyone from Albion would comment further.

John Roberts, assistant coach under both Dawe and Drewett, and Nat Saumi will take over the coaching duties in the short term.

Ironically, evidence of Drewett and Greening’s positive impact during their brief tenure came in the form of the 18-6 win over visitors Doncaster Knights on Friday evening.

A lethargic performance from Doncaster in atrocious conditions at Brickfields led to Plymouth’s fifth home win of the season – the same as second-placed Bedford; however Albion have yet to win away and remain second from the foot of the table.

Playing with a strong wind behind them in the first period, two tries from Tyson Lewis, one converted by James Love who also added a penalty, gave them a 15-3 half time lead. The Knights could only muster two David McIlwaine penalties in reply and, despite the elements, Plymouth finished the stronger.

Also on Friday evening, Bristol ran out winners at Meadow Lane and their 24-35 bonus point defeat of Nottingham leaves them seven points clear of Bedford at the top.

James Merriman opened the scoring with a try for the visitors and Jon Goodridge exploited weak tackling to add a second immediately after the restart. Bristol led 6-13 at the interval, and Ruki Tipuna and Sean Marsden touched down in the second period to seal the win and secure the bonus point. However, Joe Duffy scored twice for the home side to provide respectability. Follow this link to view the Bristol tries:

A late penalty try allowed Moseley to snatch victory at the Old Deer Park on Saturday. Joe Ajuwa’s seventh Championship try of the season had earlier given London Welsh the lead, but the Exiles failed to take their chances and turn pressure into points, losing 7-10.

Andre Bester

Esher surprised everybody on New Year’s Eve by spoiling Rotherham’s party with a comfortable 24-12 win at Molesey Road. Rotherham head coach Andre Bester was magnanimous in defeat, “We did make some mistakes but even if we were on form, we would have found it hard to win against this side”.

With their first win of the season under their belts, coach Mike Schmid will be looking forward to this weekend’s trip to Bristol and, although already consigned to a place in the relegation play-offs, Esher will be beginning to believe that then can stay up.

On New Year’s Day, Bedford added to London Welsh’s miserable weekend with an emphatic 32-13 home win over the Cornish Pirates.

And finally, Leeds is one of the two Championship grounds currently deemed fit to grace the Premiership. It is a fine place to watch rugby, but on the evidence of a scrappy New Year’s Day encounter with London Scottish, it will be some time before visitors from the top flight arrive at Headingley.

Tommy Bell - on song with the boot

Tommy Bell, who was the only Leeds player on the scoreboard with a try, a conversion and four penalties, won it for Leeds with the final kick of the game from the left touchline.

Torrential rain prior to kick off meant that each side was content to put the ball in the air and invite the other to make a mistake. The Exiles played the conditions rather better and thoroughly deserved their 11-3 lead after 32 minutes.

All the Exiles points – a try and four penalties - came from fly half Dan Mugford. When Exiles’ flanker Anthony Andrews suffered a dislocated knee, a long break ensued and this seemed to galvanise the home side who went on to win 19-17.

Leeds incur the referee's disfavour!

Scottish had looked the better team until they faded in the last five minutes and conceded costly penalties. For highlights of the game, click here: 

All this leaves the Championship looking like this:

WEEK 14 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND UP

Pat Sanderson 

Pat Sanderson, commentating for Sky Sports at the Memorial Stadium last Friday night said, “You don’t see passages of play that good, that often".

Bristol had just shunted the Bedford pack some 30 metres up field from a lineout for Jack Tovey to release Fautua Otto who finished the move beneath the posts for the home side’s second try.

Unsurprisingly, Sanderson singled out two-try Otto as Sky Sports’ man of the match; however, as is often the case, it was the Bristol forwards who put down the foundations for a decisive win that took the west-country side seven points clear of the chasing pack.

Tristan Roberts of Bristol

James Merriman and Tristan Roberts were also outstanding and Bristol - who played the conditions much better than the visitors - thoroughly deserved to complete the double over second-placed Bedford.

Bristol can look forward to Friday night’s clash against Nottingham at Meadow Lane with confidence following this performance. “We’ve put the Bedford game behind us now”, said veteran lock Roy Winters. “We’re expecting a really tough test.”

On Christmas Eve, the Cornish Pirates notched up a bonus point win against their neighbours from the other side of the Tamar. For highlights, click here: 

Poor discipline from Pete Drewitt’s men, which culminated in a second yellow for Gareth Evans, contributed to their 33-12 defeat. Although Albion are already virtually consigned to the relegation dogfight, signs are emerging however, that they have the ability to avoid the drop.

The Pirates travel to Goldington Road to take on Bedford on New Year’s Day, while Plymouth are at home to Doncaster on Friday, kicking off at 7.45.

Also on Christmas Eve, a Dave McCall try and four penalties and a conversion from Garry Law were enough to see Rotherham home against Nottingham 19-11. The visitors managed a try from No8 Alex Shaw, and a penalty each from Kieran Hallett and James Arlidge. This was the Titans’ seventh win in a row and they retain their unbeaten home record. They travel to Molesey Road to take on an emergent Esher on New Year’s Eve.

Esher’s Boxing Day 13-13 draw at the Old Deer Park ended a 14 match losing streak. They could have taken all four points had Mark Atkinson’s injury time penalty attempt not faded short of the bar. Esher, who were down to 13 men at one stage in the first half, were only 5-3 behind at the break. The Exiles were far from their best and tries from Hudson Tonag’uiha and Vili Ma’asi and a Gordon Ross penalty matched a try from Esher’s Stuart Mackie, converted by Atkinson who also added a penalty.

London Scottish displayed no Christmas hangover symptoms recording a comprehensive 16-29 win over Moseley at Billesley Common on Boxing Day.

With a strong wind behind them, the visitors raced to a 23-0 lead, and held on to move above their hosts into ninth place in the Championship. However, they are still 15 points adrift and a relegation scrap looks inevitable for both clubs. The Exiles’ backs have clearly benefitted from coaching sessions from Scotland backs coach Gregor Townsend. The result was two slick tries from Ben MacDougall and Willie Lipp. They take on Leeds on New Year’s Day while Moseley travel to London Welsh.

Finally, Leeds coach Diccon Edwards felt that a 9-9 draw at Castle Park was two points gained rather than two points lost but was unhappy with the levels of his players’ performance.

It took a massive defensive effort in the last five minutes to deny Doncaster victory in this Yorkshire derby. Three David McIlwaine penalties for the home side and two penalties for Leeds from Tommy Ball and a Joe Ford drop goal left things level after 80 minutes. For highlights, click here 

All this leaves the Championship table looking like this: