Sweeping past Dings Crusaders 59-12 for a seventh straight win

Plymouth Albion maintained their flawless start to the National League 1 season in style, sweeping past Dings Crusaders 59-12 on a crisp autumn afternoon at Brickfields. Following their record-breaking previous home outing, Albion ran rampant with a nine-try display, cheered on by a stellar crowd and energised by the club’s youth section media takeover.

Determined to put last weekend’s slow opening against Sale behind them, Albion flew out of the traps from the opening whistle, with the league top try scorer Noah Fenton crossing early. Bobby Wigginton claimed a contested high ball before Albion immediately spread play to the opposite wing. Iwan Jenkins’ precise final pass released Fenton, who ran onto the ball at pace and cut through to score the opener.

Plymouth’s early momentum was soon supressed by the visitors. Despite suffering an early yellow card due to poor discipline, Dings managed to keep the Albion forward pack at bay for much of the first half. Unforced errors also frustrated the league leaders, with a series of spilled catches in threatening areas repeatedly handing possession back to the Crusaders.

Dings resolute defence eventually gave way, with a second yellow card piling them under immense pressure, with Noah Fenton once again the beneficiary of an exceptional pin-point pass, this time from Jack Oulton, which allowed the speedy winger to race in for his second try.

The Crusaders almost struck back moments later after a flurry of penalties left Albion frantically defending their own line, but a remarkable defensive set kept the visitors out for 15 phases, before winning a penalty and calmly clearing downfield. The first half ended with an unlikely but popular scorer, as veteran Dan Pullinger barged his way over from close range, after a melee of well-nourished shoulders from the Albion pack bulldozed their way up the pitch.

Plymouth emerged following the break a completely transformed side, swapping first-half inaccuracies for a clinical and breathless display. Frankie Dart started proceedings, after he rose the highest to claim a swirling high ball, before it was swiftly passed across the field to Noah Fenton, who swerved between defenders at an almighty pace, before racing half the length of the pitch to claim his hattrick and Albion’s bonus point score.

With this try, the floodgates seemingly opened, with Dings suddenly struggling to halt progress of Albion’s maul and falling off tackles they were making before the break. This allowed Pullinger to claim his second of the afternoon from a similar position, with the prop now one-off his tally for tries last campaign (3).

Jarrard Hayler was next to score, after Cameron Doak’s fantastic offload allowed substitute Angus Hodges to rumble deep into the Crusaders 22. Half of Albion’s players were lined up on the short blind-side waiting for their opportunity to tear through the next line of Dings’ defence, before Hayler shoved himself over the line to extend Plymouth’s lead to 38-0.

Halfway through the second period, Albion’s line was eventually breached, after 158 minutes without conceding at home. Dings Crusaders’ try came through a rolling maul from close range.

Momentum didn’t remain with the away side for long, as Albion got another score on the board through Hodges, after a sumptuous offload from Frankie Dart found the galloping flanker back on his inside, who was able to beat the oncoming defenders for speed to the line and dive over for the home sides 7th try of the game.

Dings shortly after scored another, marching up to within 5 metres of the line with another powerful rolling maul, before an unbelievably fortunate bounce off a hand (backwards) redirected the ball to Crusaders’ winger Solomon O’Brien-Taufa who had room to dive over for the score. Sam Berry missed the conversion, which he mysteriously decided to take as a drop goal rather than off the tee.

Albion ended the fixture stronger of the two sides, after getting more success at the maul, which saw Rhys Williams crash over on two separate occasions in the final 5 minutes of the game, to leave the final score as 59-12.

Having safely navigated past the quarter-mark of the National League 1 campaign, Plymouth Albion now enjoy a well-earned week off to recharge, before they make the journey to Bishops Stortford on the 31st of October. The next fixture back at Brickfields is against the Rams on the 7th of November.