Mathewson Parts Way with Perth

By David Berrie
Wed 14th September 16


After 50 games, four seasons and three tries Alby Mathewson will farewell the Western Force. The former Hurricanes and Auckland Blues scrumhalf will leave the Western Australian club and further his career abroad, with his first stop to be in Canterbury in the Mitre 10 Cup.

The feisty number nine made the move to Perth for the start of the 2013 season and became a vital player in the side going on to play every game that season, starting in 15 of them.

Mathewson went on to play his 100th Super Rugby game against the Waratahs in Round 2 of the 2014 season and added a further eight games to his career in what was the most successful season ever in the Force’s young history.

The four-time capped All Black proceeded to play another 25 games for the Force in the 2015 and 2016 seasons, tallying a remarkable 133 Super Rugby games in 10 seasons.

The Western Force would like to thank Alby for his service to the club over the last four years and we wish him, Cara, Nixon and Boston all the very best in the future.

Alby Mathewson
Player Number: #101
Western Force Debut: Round 1, 2013 v Melbourne Rebels (AAMI Park)
Super Rugby Caps: 133
Super Rugby Points: 100 (20 Tries)
Western Force Caps: 50
Western Force Points: 15 (3 Tries)

https://www.westernforce.com.au/arti...arts-way-perth


Farewell Alby, thanks for your service and all the best for the future :approve:

Thanks Alby, appreciate the great job you did.:thumleft: :salut:

Good luck and thanks Alby!

Did a lot of appearances at junior rugby carnivals while he was here and came to a couple of the junior prize giving days at Kalamunda. Thank you for your contributions Alby.

With Prior, Louwrens, Ruru and Gussy Taylor we have a good core of halfbacks so there was not a real case to renew his contract though. If we do go down the path of signing a new marquee player there are still a few positions we need to cover just 9 isn't one of them anymore.

Too true Kalamunda. I'd like to think that having Alby here for an extended stay is one of the main reasons we have such a promising core of young 9s

Always felt the Force did pretty well out of Alby. Sorry to see him go in many respects, but he has left it better for his having been here. Hope for all best things for him in the future.

glad to see he left and was not pushed allways gave 100% did a lot of work of the pitch good luck and thanks Alby :cheers:::)

OK, a question about Alby,

I think we're all of the opinion that his lock on the starting spot was looking a lot more shaky in the last (probably 2) years.

Is that because he has been slowing down with age, or is it that the blokes chasing him were getting better and better, making him only appear that way?

He was slowing down
not as aggressive, not as many niggles at opposition forwards and not as many darting runs down the side of the ruck

A WF side with no direction over the last 2 seasons didn't help him at all. You watch the change in him when he starts for Canterbury. The guy is only thirty he has a few years left in him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GIGS20

OK, a question about Alby,

I think we're all of the opinion that his lock on the starting spot was looking a lot more shaky in the last (probably 2) years.

Is that because he has been slowing down with age, or is it that the blokes chasing him were getting better and better, making him only appear that way?

---

I thought he was getting slow at distributing balls out of rucks, causing us to lose any momentum we would gain.

Probably one of the best acquisitions we have ever made.

He made a huge difference when he came over and we were lucky that the ARU assisted us by allowing him to extend his original marque spot for a further two years, giving us four great years.

With the lack of depth at scrumhalf in Australia, it was unlikely that we would have got any further extensions.

Albie, thank you for what you did for us and what you brought to us, it was really appreciated.

Thank you to you and a special thank you to your family for sharing you with us and allowing you the freedom to travel and play for the team.

Best of luck on your next rugby adventure, and we will keep an eye on those tweets to see how it is going.

I think he slowed a little but i think he was stymied a fair bit as well. As in too structured. Several times during the last couple of years you would see him like to play on quickly from penalties only to be stopped while the lads looked for approval on what to do. i know that at the start of this year my young fella had the chance to spend an arvo at training with the boys and Alby was his guide at training. My lad had a ball with him and reckons he should've stayed. Good Luck Alby in your endeavours.

Mathewson on his way to play for Bristol in the Aviva Prem according to this article:

http://www.planetrugby.com/news/bris...ith-mathewson/