By David Challis

A depleted Tonbridge Juddians went down 34-21 to Plymouth Albion in National League 1.

TJs made the 250-mile journey to Plymouth for the first time in their history with a side heavily hit by injury, particularly in the pack.

This showed early on as Plymouth gained the upper hand at the scrum and the maul, with the referee giving early penalties to the hosts. And when Matt Foulds was sent to the sin-bin in the opening 10 minutes for pulling down a driving maul things looked ominous.

So it proved as Plymouth crashed over for a penalty try within the first quarter. However, some excellent quick thinking from Ryan Taylor-Dennehy and Duncan Tout saw Judds take the kick-off quickly with Albion caught napping.

Tout regathered and offloaded back inside to Taylor-Dennehy to see the scores at 7-7.

However parity was shortlived as Plymouth continued to batter Tonbridge up front. Three more quick tries followed as Albion made the most of their advantage in the set-piece.

The away side knew that in the second half they would have to open up to level things up and they came out with exactly that mindset. Upping the tempo by moving the larger pack around gained field position, but, as has been the case for much of this season, Tonbridge lacked the cutting edge to score quickly and struggled to make inroads on the scoreboard.

When Plymouth raced away with an intercept just as TJs looked to build some momentum the game was all but over. However, the away side rallied and gave the travelling support something to cheer about in the final 15 minutes.

First came a penalty try as Tonbridge's forwards got one back on Plymouth following some strong work to reduce the home side down to 14 men, then Kieran Sassone went over as again Tonbridge married fast play with forward precision.

TJs then went in search of a fourth try which would secure a losing bonus point. However Plymouth dug in to stop them from coming away with any points.

Juddians host Leeds Tykes on Saturday.