Seven heaven fast start sees
PLYMOUTH Albion extended their winning sequence to eight games with a comfortable 47-26 success at Birmingham Moseley.
The visitors scored seven tries in total, after an explosive start had delivered the try bonus point and a 26-point advantage by the end of the opening quarter.
The pick of these came from winger Rob Wedlake, who also added a second score after the break, while his opposite number Ed Sheldon grabbed two of the hosts’ four scores.
And Plymouth head coach Kieran Hallett praised his side’s resilience in the face of a number of positional changes brought about by injuries.
“We’ve had an interesting week which meant two forwards were playing in the centres, but we stuck to our task really well,” he said.
“We did everything we said we were going to do which meant we’ve got a five-point win away from home against a good side.
“The first 20 minutes was as good as it could have been. We stuck to the script and played at a tempo that was fast but we were comfortable with, which unlike last week, meant we didn’t force things and make mistakes.”
Plymouth’s forwards made early headway through their driving maul, and Moseley conceded a simple score to former Billesley man Dan Williams following a wellworked line-out peel.
Albion then added two long-distance scores before the ten minute mark. The first was touched down by right wing Matt Crosscombe, following a 60 metre diagonal burst from Wedlake, who promptly followed his fellow wingman onto the scoresheet when he finished off another flowing handling move.
Matt Shepherd converted both, after which matters deteriorated further for Moseley when fly-half James Williams was sent to the sin bin.
This provided Plymouth with all the encouragement required to claim the bonus point score, touched down by centre Herbie Stupple in support of his scrum half ’s quickly-tapped penalty.
Immediately after the restart Plymouth backrower Dan Williams was
despatched to the sin bin. This triggered a see-saw third quarter, in which Sheldon’s first score was cancelled out by Plymouth prop Dan Pullinger.
The hosts then drove long-serving No.8 Chris Brightwell over, only for Wedlake to claim his second, following a flowing move featuring Shepherd and another Moseley old boy, Nile Dacres.
After Stupple become the third player to receive a yellow card, Moseley centre Alex Grove went under the posts. Sheldon’s second score – also his 16th of the campaign – then earned the hosts a try bonus point five minutes from time, but Albion had the last word through a penalty try when Jack Preece collapsed a driving lineout.
That earned him a yellow card and Moseley boss Kevin Maggs was left to rue their slow start.
“We missed far too many tackles and didn’t look after the ball and they made us pay,” he said.
“That 19-point start ended up being the difference, as we won the second half 26-21.”