AUSTRALIAN centre Marc Koteczky is hoping Plymouth Albion can learn their lesson from Saturday’s home defeat to Darlington Mowden Park.

Koteczky, who scored one of Albion’s two tries in the 25-15 defeat, felt the young Plymouth team did not play smart enough rugby in the horrible conditions at Brickfields.

The defeat ended a run of three consecutive bonus-point wins for Graham Dawe’s side.

“It was a tough day at the office,” said Koteczky. “It’s not nice to lose at home in front of your own crowd.

“The momentum swung quite heavily in the second half.  We came out firing and we tried to get on the ref’s side early on but the momentum seemed to shift pretty quickly.

“I just think it comes down to us having to be a bit smarter and play field position in this kind of weather.

“We did not help ourselves staying in our own half and we gave some penalties away in our own half.”

He added: “We had a bit of a test of this weather last week up at Henley, but this is probably the first game we have had where it has been quite slow and boggy. We’ve got to take the lesson and build for next week.

“We’ll have to have a look at the video and see what we need to work on.

“Like I said, it’s not nice to lose in front of your home crowd, but we’ll get back to work and try and get a win away and then come back home.”