Plymouth Albion
Plymouth Albion
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/RUGBYCLUBMAG
As a club, we are actively working with 15-20 schools
and organisations in and around the city. We often go
into schools to coach the students as well as have them
come to the club to train so they can get first-hand
experience of playing in a rugby-focused environment.
With the work we do with local schools, businesses
and other organisations we consider our club to be
heavily community based. This is not just evident in the
work that we do and the people we work with but also in
the atmosphere during our games, community projects
and the overall feel of the club in the local area.
In the coming years there will be some trials and
tribulations that I am certain we will come up against.
Namely the fact that National 1 level is becoming
increasingly more and more competitive, for instance,
the league is migrating towards London and the south
east and the biggest challenge we face is being able to
compete with clubs with larger financial backing due to
location. However, we believe in our players and with
the dedication to rugby and to the club that each one of
them has, I am confident that this will be a successful
season both on and off the pitch for Plymouth Albion.
Article provided by Head Coach Ben Gulliver
Plymouth Albion
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
I first joined the club almost fifteen years ago, back in 2005 when Graham Dawe
was Director of Rugby. At that point in time, Albion were playing at championship
level with a talented squad. It was a fantastic opportunity to develop both as a
player and as a person and I thoroughly enjoyed the two years I spent playing at
the club. I then re-joined the club this summer ahead of the 2019/20 season and
this time returning as head coach. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience so far
and am happy to be back down in the south west.
The off season has gone really well for the team, our
guys came through having worked tremendously
hard and trained well as individuals and
collectively as a team. However, like
any team, we come up against
challenges throughout the year. I
find the most difficult ones tend
to be the unexpected ones. For
example, a red card, yellow
cards as well as managing
my player’s expectations.
Despite the challenges we
face, the mood at the club
remains a positive one.
Although we’ve been
on the back of some close
losses in the last couple
of games, we fully believe
in our processes and are
raring to go for the next part
of the season. The league will be
extremely tight this year and we just
need to ensure we are converting good
performances into winning ones. We have
also been successful in our off field business so things
14 Issue 88
are looking good from both a rugby and a business point
of view.
When it comes to youth rugby, it is very
important to us as a club. We recognise
that not all schools have the
capability of playing U18 rugby.
As a result of this, we have now
set up an U18 team that is
coached by a selected few out
of our first team guys that
allows the young people of
Plymouth an opportunity
to play rugby. We also run
Super Saturdays each week
which is headed up by
our Community Manager,
Michael Lewis. These events
are for the younger age
groups to develop their skills
both on and off the pitch. We
encourage and develop our junior
teams with the plan that, when the
time comes, they get the opportunity to
make the smooth transition to step into the
first team squad.
“I played for Plymouth Albion in the 2nd row until about
ten years ago. I stopped playing to concentrate on my
business and Brunel are now main sponsors at the club.
I still get along to all home games and some away as well
when I can. It’s very much a family affair, my dad Dave
owns Plymouth Albion, his brother Max is M.D (he had to
be as he was never going to be M.D at Brunel!), his mam
Liz is receptionist and works in the club shop and sister
Elenor is the head of finance.
I am friends with Ben Gulliver and believe that he is the
answer and way forward for Albion, Ben has a real passion
for the game.”
Brian Venables, M.D Brunel Recycling
“Our chairman and founder, Ali Hannaford, was appointed
chairman of Plymouth Albion in 2016. We’ve got lots of
keen rugby fans in the company so had known about the
club before then, but 2016 is when we started officially
supporting the team.
We love attending games where we can, and have a
trip planned for the last game of 2019, at home against
Cinderford. We’d like to wish the club all the best for the
rest of the season – in spite of some recent challenges
they’re resilient and talented, so we’re looking forward to
cheering them on in the games left to play.”
Paramount
“My wife and I are massive rugby fans, being supporters of Bath and Exeter Chiefs. We have been friends with Luke
Chapman and his family for years. When Luke moved to Albion we wanted to help in any way we could and over a drink
one night discussed sponsorship.
This is our second year sponsoring and we get to five or six games a season, it’s difficult with our business to get to
more. There have been a lot of changes at the club, great coaches and players coming through and they are doing the
town proud. It is a difficult division to be in but they had a good end to last season and a mixed start to this season but I
know Ben and the guys will pull it together.”
Jeremy, The Plough
www.rugbyclubmag.com
15