Mike Denbee

Nice to get back to winning ways

2009-03-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

IT’S really nice to be able to write about coming away from Sedgley Park with a victory and a good win at that.
Any victory home or away is welcome at any stage of the season and all the more so after we had lost our previous two league fixtures.
But a win on the road was just what the doctor ordered and I think well deserved by our guys, who dug in when they had to.
We had gone up there looking for an away win in what was our first match in March.
It was important to get back to winning ways after losing at home to Rotherham two weeks ago and away to Exeter Chiefs on the last day of January.
As you can tell by the gaps in our schedule, we haven’t had a lot of matches, due to the weather and cup weekends.
Our only regret in the 27-11 victory over Sedgley Park is that we didn’t come back with the bonus points. But given the on-off fixture list since the turn of the year, it is obviously good to have a win in the appropriate column.
The guys played well on Saturday, as did Sedgley Park, who threw the ball around well and made life difficult for us at times.
But we defended really well and limited Park to just a few chances and then took ours when it counted.
It’s the first time I’d played at Sedgley Park and I must admit to being impressed.
Given the ground is in Greater Manchester, which is the heartland of football and rugby league, the facilities and the pitch really impressed me.
The playing surface was in great condition, but I reckon it’s also the biggest I’ve ever played on.
The pitch is huge and you know you’ve covered a quite a bit of territory at the end of the game.
On a personal note, I was also pleased to come through unscathed, having injured my shoulder against Rotherham a couple of weeks ago.
I’d displaced a cartilage between a breastbone and my third rib – that was pretty painful I can tell you.
But I came through Saturday’s game okay and was pleased with my performance, generally.
Now I’m looking forward to playing against the ‘best team in the division’ – Doncaster this weekend.
I’ve described Doncaster that way after last Saturday’s result in which they inflicted the first defeat of the season on leaders Leeds Carnegie.
Donny won 27-12 up at their place and with Exeter beating Manchester 40-5, it means promotion to the Premiership at the end of the season is not a one-horse race.
And given we’ve got to play Leeds in the final match of the season, we could have a big say in who eventually goes up to the top flight – Leeds or Exeter.
However, our concern is on Doncaster at Castle Park this Saturday, which is going to be a tough game.
Still, they’re all tough games and there’ll be another one tonight when our second team – Devonport Warriors – play away at Launceston.
That fixture at Polson Bridge is almost certain to be full-blooded: it’s a sporting cliché, but a most appropriate one, in the circumstances.

Injury, defeat, rumours and naked calendar

2009-02-25T01:40:00.000-08:00

I DAMAGED my shoulder against Rotherham on Saturday and it looks like I might be out for a couple of weeks.
I popped the cartilage between my third rib and my breast bone, which is pretty painful.
I am just trying to get the swelling out of it now.
We don’t have a game this weekend so I am hoping to be fit enough for the next match away at Sedgley Park on March 7. But it will all depend on how the injury settles down.
At the moment I have a lot of bruising and swelling around the chest area, but I am hoping it will calm down soon and that maybe I can start training again next week.
I actually did the injury in the first half of the game, but because of the adrenaline I did not really think about it. It was only in the last 15 minutes when I was trying to lift at the line-outs that I realised how sore it was. At that point, though, we had used all our forward subs and so it was a case of soldiering on.
It was not a good weekend, with us losing at home, as that was our first home defeat since October.
We know we have to improve on that performance, because we made it easy for Rotherham. We controlled possession and territory for good spells, but when we made handling errors or missed tackles they capitalised and scored tries.
It was very frustrating to perform like that at home, especially when we currently only have one home game a month and over 3,000 turned up to watch us. Yet Rotherham were fighting for their lives and they came down and – I hate to say this – but I think maybe they wanted it more.
We had not played for three weeks, but we had worked hard in training during that time, so we can’t use that as an excuse. I just can’t put a finger on why our performance just did not come together on the day.
However, that game is gone and it is important now that we beat Sedgley Park away in our next match.
I have never played at Sedgley Park, but I am told it is a tough place to go. We want to go there and win and really kick-start 2009, which has not been the best of years so far for us.
Our loss against Rotherham has dropped us down to eighth in the table, level on points with seventh-place London Welsh.
One more win would mean we finished with more victories than last season, but we also want to finish higher in the table than we did last year, when we came eighth.
We have got six tough away games to come, including Cornish Pirates and London Welsh who are just in front of us.
But before we can look at anything else we just have to focus on trying to get a win at Sedgley Park.
THIS time of year there are always a lot of rumours going around about players. It just part and parcel of the professional game.
Somebody linked me with another club recently and for me that was a new experience, with this been my first season in professional rugby.
I suppose it is flattering, but I am a Plymouth Albion player and that is how I want to remain.
I suppose rumours can unsettle some players and you often wonder who starts them.
It is easy for people to put anything on a website. And down here in Devon and Cornwall rumours go around so quickly. Before you know it your grandad has heard it and is asking you about it.
But you just have to try and concentrate on your game. Me and the boys are just focusing on Sedgley Park.
A NUMBER of the Albion players, including me, are to appear in a special national calendar for Help the Heroes.
We had a photo shoot last week. The calendar is going to come out in June and it is going to be an 18-month one, featuring top rugby clubs.
It is basically a nude calendar, although all the players have well-positioned articles!
The players who did it were me, James Owen, Ross Allan, Geoff Griffiths, Arthur Brenton, Wayne Sprangle, Jamie Salter and Arran Cruickshanks.
The photos should be interesting. We have not seen them yet. They are going to send us a disc and say which ones they would like to use and see if we agree or not. I think it will be a case of my girlfriend having the final say on mine!
I have to admit it was a bit embarrassing standing there holding just a rugby ball, but it is for a fantastic cause. When Help the Heroes said it was to raise funds to build a swimming pool there was no hesitation among the players to do it.
The calendar is going to be on sale all over the UK with a club on each page.
I think Geoff Griffiths has got himself a modelling contract out of it. He did a calendar for Rotherham last year and he had about 150 pictures taken of him in suits and everything last week. I think he could be a potential superstar!
GOOD luck to Justin Mensah-Coker at the World Cup Sevens in Dubai.
It is a fantastic opportunity for him and let’s hope his knee will be good enough for him to play.
Hopefully, he can do Plymouth proud and help Canada do well. I know he has bought some brand, new red boots to go with the Canada kit for the event – so watch out for them on the telly!

Exeter defeat hurts

2009-02-03T16:21:00.001-08:00

SATURDAY’S 29-0 defeat against Exeter was so disappointing.
Going in at half-time just 3-0 down, we were in a good position, and for 50 minutes we were right in the game.
But Exeter then scored their first try and after that, we were always playing catch up.
We created some good positions and some good opportunities, but we didn’t make the most of them and against a good team like Exeter, who are operating on a Premiership budget, you are always going to pay.
They can change the pace of a game, just like they did on Saturday, and that is what cost us. The defeat is still hurting so much that I really don’t have too much else to say on the matter.

AS DISAPPOINTING as it was to lose on Saturday, there is still plenty for us to play for in the rest of the season.
We are currently in seventh place and it would be great if we could finish higher in the division this season than the last one when we ended the term in eighth spot.
We have some tough games to play against the likes of Rotherham, Doncaster, Bedford, the Cornish Pirates and Leeds.
But we also have still got teams to play who are below us in the league such as Moseley, Sedgley Park and Esher. Those three games are all away and will certainly not be easy, but they are opportunities for us to pick up some points and try and make our way further up the table.
Next up for us, after having this weekend off, is a tough trip to Moseley.
But we have to get back to winning ways as soon as possible and the game at Moseley is a good opportunity for us to do that.

WE ARE without a match this weekend after being knocked out of the National Trophy by Doncaster.
It is not nice being without a game because I am a big fan of the cup.
I made my debut in the cup against Henley Hawks last season and then played against Pertemps Bees and Northampton before we lost in the semi-finals to the Saints. Those three games had such a huge impact on my development as a rugby player and I was pleased to play in each of those three matches.
However, while I would love to still be involved in this season’s National Trophy competition, having a rest this weekend may be a good thing for the team in general.
We have suffered quite a few injuries and it has been quite a tough season.
So, a weekend off is a good chance for the boys who are not involved with the Devonport Warriors on Saturday to have a bit of a rest and be rewarded for putting their bodies on the line over the last five or six months.

Frost frustration

2009-01-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

IT WAS frustrating to get all the way to London Welsh only to find the match postponed on the morning of the game.
I thought the game would be off on Friday when I looked at the weather and saw that minus four was forecast for that evening.
I just could not see how the game would be on, but there was a pitch inspection on the Friday and they said they thought it would be okay so we travelled up that night.
But as soon as we got up on Saturday morning we knew it probably would not go ahead.
It had snowed overnight and it had also frozen.
When we went down to breakfast we were told that Graham Dawe and Tony Boyle had gone to the pitch to have a look at it.
They came back and said the pitch was rock solid and by 10.30am we knew the game was off.
By 11am the lads were on the coach heading back for Plymouth.
My brother lives in London so I decided to go stay with him for the weekend.
We could not even have a training session instead as all London Welsh’s facilities were frozen.
But we had a harder than normal Monday session yesterday.
It is the first time I have experienced a game getting called off due to a frozen pitch.
I have had a waterlogged pitch before, but not a frozen one.
However, previously I have played at a lower level and they tend to call games off a lot earlier. You don’t normally have to travel if there is any doubt.
I did feel sorry for our supporters on Saturday.
I heard the majority of them had got to Bristol before they had to turn around had head back.
It must have been very frustrating for them as well.
We wanted to play a game and they wanted to watch one.
This week the club have a game against the Army tomorrow at Aldershot and then our opening National Trophy match away at Doncaster on Saturday.
We are still waiting to see who will be involved in which games.
Going to Doncaster in the cup will be a tough test. They are going well. They have got some good components to their game.
Ketts (Adam Kettle) is playing for them. He missed the league game down at Brickfields, which we narrowly won, due to injury but he could be playing this weekend and he will be keen to prove a point.
I have never actually been to Doncaster.
It will be another new ground for me to visit, which I am looking forward to.
It is always interesting to see what happens in the cup. But after not playing on Saturday it means we will have gone two weeks without playing a league game and we are keen to try and pick some more points, especially after our disappointing draw against Newbury.
We want to do much better than we did in the second half of last season this year. I think we only won two league matches in the second half of last season, but we are keen to push on this year.

My blinding game

2009-01-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

I RECKON I literally had a blinding game at Manchester.
I scored a try in the second half, but it was all a bit blurry because of an accidental injury to my eye in the first.
What happened was that their number eight palmed me off and as he did it, his fingernail must have scratched my eyelid.
He also must have pushed the eyeball in a little, because the eye blacked out for a little while.
It was completely accidental and one of those things that can happen in a game, but I must admit that when I put my hand to my eye and blood came away, I was somewhat concerned.
I had an interesting rest of the first half, but I’m one of those players who don’t want to come off, though I did have to after 60 minutes.
Obviously, the eye swelled up at the time and I got dropped off after we got back from Manchester at home at Weston-super-Mare, because I didn’t fancy driving back to Plymouth with all those flashing lights from other cars.
It’s all right now, though I’ve got a lot of red eye and bruising – I’ve got a really nice shiner.
I’m going to get my eye checked out and if I’ve got to go to the eye hospital, I will do that.Meanwhile, I’ve got to give credit to our forwards for getting me over for my try.
As I said, it was all a bit blurry and it was a flop over from half a metre out, but I’ll take that any day.
We were obviously delighted to win at Manchester, because we knew they would throw everything at us.
All right, they’re at the bottom of the league, but they’ve run some of the top sides quite close, so there was no way we were going to take them for granted.
For us to come away from the game with five points was a great result and means we’ve got our second win on the road.
When we won 7-6 at Coventry for our first away win of the season in absolutely appalling conditions, we got a monkey off our backs.
Everyone was talking about us not winning away and it got so you wondered yourself if we could do it or not, or if we were a good team.
It was a matter of transferring our home form, which has been pretty good, to our away form.Now we’ve got a lot of games on the road coming up, so I think it’s going to be a big 2009 for us.
We’ve done well in 2008 and now we have to replicate that form going into the new year.
For me personally, 2008 has been superb and if I can carry on playing anything like I have been this year, I’m going to be very happy in 2009.

2008-12-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

WE HAD a really good win over the Cornish Pirates on Saturday. Both teams entered the game on the same points, so it was a big game for that reason, apart from the fact that it was a Devon/Cornwall derby.To get a victory and to play well at home in front of a large crowd is really pleasing and a big boost for us.I thought we controlled large parts of the game, defended well and attacked with pace and thoroughly deserved the victory.When we lost Keni Fisilau to the sin-bin following his yellow card we did find ourselves under a bit of pressure. But we defended well, we closed the 10 minutes or so down and managed to cope quite comfortably with what Pirates threw at us.But although it was a memorable win on Saturday, we have to try and transfer our home form into our away matches.We have won our last five home games, but we have only won once away in five attempts, so that is something we are going to have to try and improve upon.But I think, although we have got some tough away matches coming up against the likes of Leeds, Coventry and Manchester, we can perform better away from home.I think with a young side it is all about confidence. We are still gelling as a side and learning how each player is playing, but we are really starting to find our feet.Now we have to push on and stand up and be counted and play to our own game-plan. If we buy into it we will see some rewards.

I HAVE to hold my hand up and say I contributed to Keni’s yellow card on Saturday.I pushed too hard in the ‘D’ and left a huge gap behind me, which meant that Keni had to drift across to cover me.That is something I am going to have to learn from because I am very self-critical of my own game. I am always looking to improve my own game and I need to work on that, as well as other things, to make myself a better player.
ONE of the most pleasing aspects of our performances in recent weeks is our ability to take our chances. Earlier in the season, we were creating lots of chances, but not making the most of them.But we have been working hard on it in training and now we are being far more clinical, as you can see in our past few games.If the forwards can do their jobs and get the backs running, then with the players we have got in our squad such as Tom Jarvis, Geoff Griffiths and Matt Hopper, we can cause teams problems.That is what has happened in recent weeks – you have only got to look at Matt Hopper’s try against the Pirates to see that.

Getting over the Blues

2008-11-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

IT WAS very disappointing to see our unbeaten run come to end like it did against Bedford on Saturday.
It was a strange game. We went from being right in it to being out of it within the space of seven minutes.
It was interesting watching the DVD yesterday and looking at what happened and where it went wrong for us.
We could have gone 13-3 up in the first half had Greg Nicholls seen Wayne Sprangle on his right after making a break.Our performance in the first half was quite good.
We went in 8-6 down but then came out and took a 9-8 lead.
We were right in it and the game could have gone either way but it just happened Arthur Brenton was sin-binned and we lost our shape.
We just lost it for 10 or 15 minutes and that was it.It could have been a different story, but that is professional sport. You have to take the highs and the lows.
We can’t dwell on Saturday’s loss we had to put it behind us and concentrate on trying to improve and beat Esher at home this weekend.
I WAS devastated for Martin Rice on Saturday, picking up another injury.
He has just come back from two career-threatening injuries in the last 18 months and now there is a possibility he may had done his MCL (medial collateral ligaments).
He has been playing so well. He has been one of the best players on the park in the last few weeks, but now depending on the scan, he could be out on the sidelines again.
The whole team felt for him and are worried about him, but we will just have to see what the scan shows.
We are all keeping our fingers crossed that it is not that serious.
Maybe it may just be like my injury earlier in the season that only kept me out for four weeks, but we will have to see.
Nobody would wish another serious injury on Martin. It would be heartbreaking if it was.
Kieran Hallett also had to go off injured. He is still up in Bedford and we are waiting to see how he is.Hopefully, Kieran’s injury will not be too bad.
He and Martin have been playing really well.
THE players have been following with interest the planned changes for our league.
Although the league is going to be 12 teams instead of 16 we don’t know if there will be much change at clubs like Plymouth, where we are already basically a professional outfit.
I have read they are still working on making sure all the teams have 30-plus games and it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
It is going to be an exciting time and it will be interesting to see what the new league brings.
They are talking about having an eight-team promotion play-off battle.I am not totally convinced by having play-offs.
If you are going to have it I would say maybe have the top four teams playing off.
Having play-offs means there almost no incentive to finish top. You could win all your games and still not go up.
Motivation will change and maybe teams will start prioritising matches to make sure they rest players for the play-offs.
Teams could afford to lose games and still have a chance of going up. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
But it is an exciting time and this season is also interesting as team who want to be in the Championship have to finish in the top 12 and those who come in the top four could even get in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.
We are currently eighth and we have to make sure we have a good second half of the season.
We have got a lot of away games so we need to get some form on the road and pick up wins to keep us around the top six or seven or even higher.
If you go on a run you can soon move up the table and this league can open up pretty quickly with some shock results.It will be fascinating to see how the division goes after Christmas and which teams are desperate to be in the new Championship.
I WOULD like to wish my girlfriend, Tammy a happy birthday for tomorrow.

Great to score

2008-11-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

I MANAGED to get my first try of the season on Saturday in our win against Sedgley Park, which was very pleasing.
I scored a try against Sedgley Park at home last season and then went and got a couple of more afterwards, so, hopefully, there maybe more to follow in the next few weeks.
I have had four weeks out this season with my knee injury, but I now feel like I am getting better and better.At the moment I do feel that I am playing the best rugby of my career – and thoroughly enjoying it.
I have gone from playing part-time to full-time and it was always going to take a bit of getting used to.
But I have worked extremely hard with James Owen, Danny Thomas and Graham Dawe to try and improve my game and push on. I
think I am now starting to see the benefits, but I still feel I can improve even more.I have only played 14 or 15 National Division One games, so I am still new to this level.
However, I am just absolutely thrilled to be where I am. But I am not going to take it for granted. I have to keep working not just for myself, but for the team as well.
The boys are really pleased with the fact that we have taken 11 points from our last three games.We are getting some confidence in the camp and I think we showed that on Saturday against Sedgley Park.
I do think we are starting to gel as a team.We have got two wins and a draw in our last three games, but we have to build on that.
This weekend we have got Doncaster at home and that will be a big challenge as they are a top-five team. But we feel if we play with the intensity we can do than we can get some points.
Doncaster have got a few former Albion players and I am sure they will be keen to prove a point.
I know Ketts (Adam Kettle) from last season, but I think he has had a groin operation and so I don’t know if he will be playing.
If he isn’t he will be disappointed. He was actually down at Brickfields on Saturday watching us against Sedgley Park. I think he was trying to get some dirt on us to take back to Doncaster.
Playing Donny is going to be a big test for us, but it should be an interesting game.
Unfortunately, we will be without Sean-Michael Stephen and Justin Mensah-Coker as they are on international duty.
Sean, Gareth Evans and myself have been working well as a back-row in the last few games.Graham (Dawe) is going to have to shuffle the back-row up and whoever comes in will have to perform well, but I am confident whoever steps in will be up to the job.
BRICKFIELDS hosts the annual Remembrance Match between the Combined Services and the Barbarians tonight (7.15pm).
I think all the Albion guys are going to be watching. We have a few boys involved and it should be a good game with some fast-flowing rugby. I watched last year’s match and that was entertaining.
I would like to see even more representative games at Brickfields. Hopefully, other people will start recognising the facilities that Brickfields can offer and maybe we can get some under-20 internationals or something like that down here.
Games go to other places like Henley but we have got a good capacity and great facilities and I can’t see why we can’t hold big representative games.
I WENT to see the new James Bond movie on Friday and I thought it was superb. I would definitely recommend it to all James Bond fans. It definitely lived up to my expectations.

Pleased to be back

2008-10-22T05:55:00.001-07:00

I AM very pleased to be back playing again after my knee injury.It was great to start on Saturday against Moseley and to help the team get a win as well.
It was a great victory for the club and the performance has given us something to build on for this weekend’s match against Rotherham.My knee is feeling okay now, but after a month out it is going to take a couple of weeks for the lungs to get back right, but every day I am getting fitter.
I was a bit sore after the Exeter game when I came on as a replacement in, but I’ve not had any swelling in my knee and it felt fine after Saturday’s match.
I will continue to strap the knee up for the next few games, just to be on the safe side.Saturday’s win against Moseley was huge.
The first half we scored some points and put ourselves in a good position and if the ball had gone to hand in the second half we could have scored two or three more tries.
One of these days all these passes will stick and we will score lots of tries. At least, though, we are getting into the right areas.
The guys will be working hard this week to make sure we are all geared up for Rotherham, which will be a tough game.
However, if we could go up there and get a win it would really put us in a good position.We will certainly go to Rotherham in good spirit.We had a team-bonding session on Saturday after the Moseley game, which was really good.
There is a really great team ethos at the club this season. We are really coming together as a squad and I think that is beginning to show in our performances.

ALL THE players at Albion go out and do coaching at local schools and clubs and I think we all enjoy it.
It is important to get local children involved in the game and it is good to put something back into the local community.
Some of the schools we go into don’t play rugby or others do, but they welcome some more coaching experience.
It is good if we can offer a bit of our knowledge to some youngsters.All the kids always seem to like us visiting them, especially when we arrive with all the tag equipment.
Jané du Toit and myself have just finished a six-week spell coaching at Ford Primary School.
I think all the children enjoyed us being there and did not want us to leave.We loved it there and in the six weeks we saw a vast improvement in the skills levels and team work of the pupils.
I often see some of the kids we have coached coming off the pitch at Brickfields on a Saturday afternoon and it is really nice when they come up and say hello to you.
I am just about to finish my level two coaching award. I should complete it in the middle of November.
It is good to have stuff like this on your CV. You want as much stuff on your CV as possible so you have something to fall back on. I have got my degree, I have also done a referees’ course and now I’m doing my coaching awards.
I think it is important to keep adding other skills and qualifications to give you more options later in life.

I REALLY feel for David (Palu) and James (Tideswell) who have suffered serious injuries.I share a place with Dave and he is just waiting now for a scan to reveal the full extent of his knee injury.
It is devastating that Tidy (James Tideswell) is probably going to be out for the season as he was in great form, but he has been getting a lot of advice and support from some of the other players who have had serious knee injuries before, like Martin Rice, Arran Cruickshanks and Colin Stewart.
Ricey gives encouragement to anyone who has been injured.
He has had serious neck and knee injuries in the last 18 months but look at the form he is showing now – he is playing some of the best rugby he has played.
Hopefully, Dave, James and Geoff Griffiths, who has had an operation on his broken jaw, will all be back to their best soon.

I am excited by new Albion team

2008-10-07T09:39:00.001-07:00

I HAVE to say, seeing I’ve been out of action for the past three matches with a knee injury, that I’m excited about this new Albion team.
The thing is, it’s a completely new team and we’re having to learn the sort of plays our team-mates are going to make during a game.
We’re having to pick up things like when somebody’s going to pass, or go to ground and that takes time.
I don’t think we’ve played for the entire 80 minutes during a game yet, but then this is a young team and we’re still all learning about each other.
In a minute, we’re going to play well for an entire 80 minutes and somebody had better watch out.
There are signs that it is all coming together, although we’re still letting teams into games that we shouldn’t.
But I am confident, though, that we are a good side, even though we are a young side. The trouble is that, when you start losing a few games, the pressure gets on your back and the supporters aren’t behind you.
We have, admittedly, lost three and won three games this season. In two of those, against London Welsh and Newbury, they were close games which could have gone either way.
If we had won those two matches, we could have been pushing for a top three place, but that’s rugby. You can lose a game even though you put in a poor performance.
The key thing, though, is keeping this squad together for the next three or four seasons, then I’ll tell you that we’ll play the kind of rugby which is capable of winning things.
Last season, I joined Albion at around Christmas, the team had lost a few games and morale wasn’t particularly good.
We did lose a few players last year and it didn’t help, perhaps, that some of the players who left went to teams in the same league as us.
If they go to teams in a higher league, then fair enough. But what we need to see is people who want to stay here for more than one season and become part of an exciting Albion team for the future.

A GOOD moment for me personally has been graduating from Plymouth University. Now I have a business degree, which is a good fall-back for the future when I get to 30 or 35 and I don’t want to play rugby any more.
The graduation was done very nicely on Plymouth Hoe and a lot of house-mates from the university who I haven’t seen for a while came down.
Some of them came to see the London Welsh game at the Brickfields afterwards, but unfortunately I wasn’t playing because I was injured.

Injury frustration

2008-09-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

IT IS very disappointing to be out injured, but I am progressing nicely.

I just have to take it day by day, but I am hopeful of recovering in time for this weekend’s game, although we’ll just have to see how it goes.

I strained ligaments in my knee in the first half of the game against Manchester, which has affected my sideways movement.

But I am back cycling and swimming now. I managed a 10km cycle yesterday morning and it is just a case of building on that.

I just have to keep my general fitness up with cycling and swimming to make sure I am ready to come back in when I get the go-ahead.

It a is frustrating time to be injured. I was enjoying the season, I felt I was playing some good rugby as well.

I was injured early last season and so I have not visited or played half of the teams in the league.

I had not played at Newbury, so I missed out again on playing there.

I did play against London Welsh away last season and it was not a good game to play in, so it would be nice to play this weekend and try and beat them at home.

We are currently unbeaten at home and we want to continue that record, but it will be tough this weekend.

London Welsh have gone full time this season and have brought in some good players from the likes of the Ospreys and Scarlets.

But, as last weekend showed, there are no easy games in this league.

It does not matter if a team has 20 points or no points, it all comes down to the day.

I did not travel to Newbury, but I am told it was not a good day at the office. However, that is rugby – and sport.

We just have to come back into training and have a real positive week.

We have to look at the areas we did not do so well in and try and put them right for this weekend’s home game. We want to produce another performance like we did against Manchester.

Although we have lost two games out of our first four games, I am staying very positive.

We have got Jané (du Toit) and Sean-Michael Stephen coming into the team and they are getting to know our system.

But we do have to prove we can play away as well as in front of big crowds at home.

I am happy to welcome the extra competition Sean-Michael brings.

He can play all three positions in the back-row and competition is good. It means you have to work even harder.

We also had lots of back-row forwards last season, but that just egged me on.

IT IS my graduation on Thursday.

My mum, dad and grandad are coming down for it.

The ceremony is on the Hoe, so if it is a lovely day it should be nice.

I did have a tricky year trying to finish my final year at university, juggling my studies with my rugby.

I was only expecting to be training two nights a week, but everything turned out quite different with me making the first team.

But I still managed to graduate, earn a professional contract and play for my country, so it was a good year.

BEING injured I spent the weekend with my leg up watching the Ryder Cup (pictured), which depressed me even more.

I do like golf. I admire the control and skill the top golfers have.

I like to hack around a course every so often and have been playing with Justin (Mensah-Coker), Greg (Nicholls) and Kieran (Hallett) at China Fleet.

I used to play quite a lot of golf when I was young, but I put it on the back-burner for a while and I am just trying to find my feet again.

The last time we played Greg was pretty good.

Justin has got a hell of a drive on him - he is very powerful – but he does not quite have the touch around the greens.

I think we are all around the 20 handicap, but we just enjoy getting out and having the odd round.

Nottingham disappointment

2008-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

OF COURSE it was disappointing to lose to Nottingham on Sunday, but everyone connected with the club has to remain positive.

I thought we were fairly competitive apart from losing our set-piece and we were right in the game at half-time, trailing 22-14.

We were unable to go on and claim the win we thought we were capable of achieving, but the encouraging thing is we got ourselves in the right positions.

We also finished the game strongly and that is testament to the players’ fitness and the hard work of fitness coach James Owen.

It was a hard game against a settled and organised Nottingham side and we are disappointed we never really put them under real pressure.

But the thing now is to not look back – we must look forward and that means trying to bounce back with a win over Manchester at Brickfields on Saturday.

They have lost both of their opening two games, but we will not underestimate them because they will come to Plymouth determined to leave with a victory.

Manchester have a number of good players and will not make it easy for us, so we are going to have to raise our game if we are going to beat them.

But we will work hard in training this week and look at parts of our game which we can improve on.

WITH a lot of new players joining the club this summer, it is going to take time for everyone to gel and get used to each other’s game.

But I am confident that sooner rather than later, we will mould ourselves into a team who will prove competitive on a consistent basis.

We have got a relatively young squad, but we have also brought in some experienced players like David Palu, Justin Mensah-Coker, Jane Du Toit and Sean Michael-Stephen.

They are all international class who have excellent leadership qualities and they can only help the younger players in the squad.

We also have players like Colin Stewart, Arthur Brenton, Arran Cruickshanks and Keni Fisilau – players who know what National Division One is about.

I really believe we can be positive about the remainder of the season and that we can be competitive.

ONLY two rounds of games may have been played in National Division One, but results so far indicate just how open the league is this season.

We beat a good Coventry side 13-5 on the opening day, but then Coventry went and beat the Cornish Pirates 16-0 at home last Saturday.

Four teams – Bedford, Sedgley Park, Leeds and London Welsh – have won both of their matches.

But I can see every team beating each other throughout the season, so any side who can produce consistent results will find themselves towards the top of the table.

Consistency is key in National Division One and we have three matches coming up – against Manchester, Newbury and London Welsh – where we have to target wins.

If we can claim victories in those three matches we will generate some confidence and some momentum and hopefully build on it.