Gael Force 0 - 25 Plymouth Albion: Gael Force lose as hypothermia scare forces abandonment

GAEL Force suffered a fourth successive British & Irish Cup defeat when they succumbed to a streetwise Plymouth Albion side in appalling conditions at Lasswade last night.

With 67 minutes played, the referee Paul Haycock halted proceedings after consulting both coaches and, with two Plymouth players showing signs of hypothermia and the match clearly beyond the reach of Gael Force, they took little time to reach agreement. However, as more than 60 minutes had been played, the result will stand.

It was a tough introduction for the club players drafted in by Gael Force coach Stephen Gemmell, who has now used 64 players in six matches, but he was not looking for excuses.

"Their game management was better than ours and more important, their body height at contact", he said. "That's what has happened to us in all of our games in this tournament. We've been bullied if we're being honest."

And he believes that the competition has shown the players, all of whom are professional or have aspirations to play pro rugby, how much work needs to be done. "Our basic core skills were what we didn't get right and that's what cost us the game", he added. "If you are going to play at this level of competition you have to learn lessons and that's a sign of the hard work that needs to be done."

The gulf between the sides was illustrated in the lead up to the opening try after seven minutes. Plymouth won a lineout on the edge of the home 22 and drove the home defence back over their line, allowing skipper Sean-Michael Stephens to touch down. Alex Davis kicked the conversion then kept the scoreboard ticking over with two penalties as the hosts, playing into driving snow, found it impossible to kick their way out of defence.

The visitors, who had logged a draw and two narrow defeats from their three previous matches in the competition, had former England international Graham Dawe – now aged 50 and chairman of rugby at the club –occupying the hooker berth. And he showed that he still relishes the chance to don the boots as he cajoled his colleagues throughput the opening 40 minutes before retiring. By then the result was beyond doubt. Ben Mercer having bagged a try to make it 18-0 as the teams turned round, giving the Scots the benefit of the elements.

Plymouth centre Steve Johns forced his way over for try number three after the restart, leaving Davis with a simple conversion before the referee brought the game to a premature close.

Scorers: Plymouth Albion: Tries – Stephens, Mercer, Johns. Cons – Davis (2). Pens – Davis (2).

Gael Force: S Aitken, A Turnbull, C Kinloch, P Horne, T Bury, R Aitken, R Samson, R Grant, N Shannon, D Young, N Patrick, S Turnbull, F McKenzie, S Dreyer, A Renwick. Subs used: M Strachan, J Va'a, R McAlpine, M Fedo, P Jerecevich, D Weir, M Doneghan.

Plymouth Albion: N Saumi, B Mercer, M Hopper, S Johns, G Kingdom, A Davis, R Cushions, R Hopkins, G Dawe, D Morton, J Waterhouse, M Lewis, S-M Stephens, R Watts-Jones, G Evans. Subs used: T Kessell, M Venables, D Collier, J Clarke.

Referee: P Haycock (IRFU).