Paul Rowley returns as Plymouth Albion look to re-find their form

PAUL ROWLEY returns to Plymouth Albion’s team after four weeks out with a hand injury.

Rowley missed the Championship matches against Rotherham and Bedford and the British & Irish Cup games against his former club Munster and Rotherham.

But he is back in an Albion team that shows four changes to the side that lost 55-17 to Bedford in their last Championship outing.

Rowley comes in for the injured Ruairi Cushion, who Albion still hope may be fit enough to take a place on the replacements’ bench despite picking up a knee injury against Rotherham last week.

The other changes see David Morton replace the injured Luke Cowan-Dickie, Aaron Carpenter return to the starting line-up in place of Ien Ascroft-Leigh and Jack Arnott come in for Toby Howley-Berridge.

To accommodate Carpenter, Sean-Michael Stephen switches to the second-row, while Paul Bailey will revert to centre to make room for Arnott on the wing.

Rowley is certainly looking forward to getting back into the action.

“I feel good,” he said.

“Nat gave me an extra two weeks to recover.

“I could have rushed back after two weeks, but Nat said to take more time with it being the B&I Cup.”

Rowley suffered a slight fracture to a bone in his hand against Moseley on September 22.

“I look at the tape and it looks like absolutely nothing,” said Rowley about the incident which caused the injury.

“I just fell awkwardly on it. I even played on and did not feel anything.

“I only started to feel it when I got on the bus really.”

Rowley, who missed most of last season with an ankle injury, added: “They put a cast on it two days after, but then I found out I didn’t need it after three days. It was very frustrating.

“It was really just a little niggle.

“It was not anything serious. I missed two Championship games, so it was not too bad.”

Rowley was gutted he missed out on playing against his former club Munster.

“I would have loved to have played in that game,” he said.

“I had to ask Nat to play, but it is a long season.

“I got a bit of stick from the (Munster) lads and I would have loved to have shown them something.

“But there is the away game in January, so I am looking forward to that.

“Hopefully, I am going to be involved. It would be good to play against some of my old team-mates and friends from back home.”

He added: “I thought we did well in that game (against Munster), but things did not go our way. I thought we gave it a good showing.”

Rowley knows Nottingham will pose a challenge this weekend.

“They are a tough team,” he said. “They have some big boys and it is going to be a physical confrontation, but I’m looking forward to it.”

He added: “There has been a lot of talk in the week about making Brickfields a fortress.

“We want to keep up our home form, especially in the league.

“Obviously the B&I Cup game here (against Munster) did not go our way, but it is down to us to make this a fortress.”

ALBION TEAM

15.............................Henry Slade

14..........................Lewis Warner

13...............................Paul Bailey

12......................Bevon Armitage

11.............................Jack Arnott

10...........................Paul Roberts

9..............................Paul Rowley

1............................David Morton

2...............................Jon Vickers

3......................Lloyd Fairbrother

4.....................Brett Beukeboom

5........Sean-Michael Stephen (c)

6.............................Sam Hocking

7........................Wayne Sprangle

8.......................Aaron Carpenter

Reps: Ruairi Cushion/Joe Bartlett, Keni Fisilau, Ben Rogers, Jack Andrew, Tom Cowan-Dickie, Harrison Tovey, Sam Matavesi