London Scottish put Plymouth Albion to the sword at the Athletic Ground, Richmond, yesterday, running in ten tries to emphatically bounce back from last week’s defeat at Bristol.
Indiscipline had seen the Exiles fall behind after half an hour, but seven unanswered second-half tries saw them jump back to third place in the Greene King IPA Championship, three points behind leaders Bristol.
In particular captain Mark Bright impressed, scoring two well-deserved tries to take his tally for the season to nine, as well as carrying strongly to create numerous other opportunities.
Debutant centre Connor Braid also grabbed two tries after coming on after half-time to seal a comfortable win and cap an impressive start to the league campaign before the upcoming rounds of the British and Irish Cup.
Plymouth will be ruing many aspects of their performance, not least the erratic display of fly-half Lawrence Rayner, who managed to combine an icy temperament from the kicking tee with costly rushes of blood to the head with ball in hand.
The first of these, after just 35 seconds, saw him float a pass into the Exiles’ Peter Lydon’s hands, the full-back gratefully cantering home from halfway and adding the conversion for 7-0.
Man-of-the-match Lee Millar then scored the try of the afternoon after nine minutes, a classic outside-centre’s individual effort that began with a slashing break from well inside his own half.
At this point Scottish got complacent and the penalty count rose, allowing Rayner to kick his side within range before a Plymouth maul enabled scrum-half Josh Davies to scamper over for a converted try that gave Albion an unlikely 16-14 lead.
However, it was then that Bright took control, carrying powerfully three times before delivering a sumptuous off-load to fellow back-rower Neil Best, who put centre PJ Gidlow under the posts for a great team score, and a 21-16 half-time lead.
Greater ruthlessness after the break ultimately saw Scottish romp home, with Millar adding a second directly from the kick-off, and wing Matt Williams and scrum-half Jamie Stevenson adding a try apiece to those of Bright and Braid.
