Post by Jamie Crawford on Oct 14, 2019 16:16:30 GMT
Cornish Pirates preview
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Round 2, Castle Park Sat 19th Oct, 2019 - 02:30pm
The second Championship league game is our first home league game when we welcome last season’s fifth-placed Cornish Pirates and hopefully many of their well-known away supporters known as the Press Gang. I’ll never forget first hearing their well-known chant, “Give us a ‘P’…, ending with a long R (aaaarrrrrrrr), with A, T, E & S being missed.
The Pirates’ initial pre-season game was against weaker opposition in the guise of Redruth & Cambourne RFC (won 0-36). I believe that Redruth and Cambourne are two separate clubs with Redruth playing in National Two South (level four league in the English rugby union system). Cambourne play in South West Premier (formerly National League 3 South West, level five in English rugby)
The Pirates then travelled to Richmond, London to play London Scottish and lost 24-20. Two more away Cup matches followed against Carnegie and Nottingham (won both 0-48 & 7-42 respectively). Their first league game was at home against last season’s Championship runners-up, Ealing Trailfinders.
To paraphrase Martin from the Forum, “…Pirates resounding victory this week against Ealing we best be on fire next week, or expect to have done to us what they did to Ealing.”
(Prates beat the Trailfinders 30-10)
They welcome Newcastle Falcons to Mennaye Field next week after coming to Castle Park.
The Rugby Paper’s Dream Team 2018/19 listed Sam Matavesi (Cornish Pirates & Fiji) as their Hooker (No. 2). They said of Matavesi, “Having switched to the front row from flanker, Matavesi has thrived both for club and country. Endeared for his all-action style, Matavesi is often at the forefront of defence and attack and his loan move to Toulouse at the tail-end of the season was well-deserved, as was his return to the Fiji team in November after a five-year absence.” (www.therugbypaper.co.uk)
Matavesi may have returned from Japan for this game.
Pirate Utility Back Robin Wedlake was the only player to score two hat tricks in the Championship last season, so a player to be aware of.
Another Pirate International; “Much-travelled Welsh international Craig Mitchell has joined Cornish Pirates after parting company with financially-crippled Leeds Carnegie.” (Prop; Wales online)
Unfortunately Mitchell didn’t make the Wales World Cup squad in Japan.
The Pirates are going to move from Mennaye Field to the Stadium for Cornwall.at Threemilestone sometime soon. Cornwall Council have admitted that the delays are their fault.
“Since 2012, the subsequent seasons have been about consolidation, striving to keep afloat during an uncertain and testing period both on and off the pitch. however, the continued desire for a stadium and the unseen work by the developers, supporters, Cornish Pirates staff and recent directors to ensure the Stadium for Cornwall is now, at last a reality, has generated fresh impetus and exciting plans for a Cornish Pirates future based in a brand new stadium in Truro.
A lot of hard work lies ahead to ensure the stadium delivers that future with the Club’s stated ambition of making a push for the Premiership. These are clearly exciting times for a club that has always openly embraced change and what the future could offer. As our history indicates, it doesn’t happen right away – it has to evolve!” (Cornish Pirates website)
“The Stadium for Cornwall is a proposed multi-purpose stadium in Threemilestone, Cornwall, England. There are no major sports stadia in Cornwall: the largest capacity ground is the Recreation Ground in Camborne.” (Wikipedia) The funding was received of £47 million from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund to build the Truro Northern Access Road. on June 11 2019.
“The Stadium for Cornwall will be a stunning new home for Truro City FC (taken over by the Pirates in March 2019), the Cornish Pirates, Truro & Penwith College – and all of Cornwall. Creating new jobs and opportunities for sport, business and entertainment.” (https://www.stadium4cornwall.co.uk/)
I believe that construction has begun but there is no completion date as yet. I think I saw a photo of the construction commencing but can’t find it again! Once the Pirates have moved to their new home, we can expect a concerted push for promotion to the Premiership. They have declared that is there intention in purchasing the Stadium for Cornwall. For now no team in the Championship can assume that the Pirates will ‘take it easy’ until then, they have always been and will remain one of the strongest teams in English rugby’s second tier.
Last week we opened our season with an 8-20 win over Hartpury College. The Twitter feed described it as ‘a scrappy game but the Knights were clinical throughout’. Griff has described the game as ‘a bad day at the office’ in the Free Press (below) but we still won.
All agree that we won ugly; plenty to improve upon for our game against the Pirates but a win is a win, especially on the road.
According to the Pirates own review of the game, they were happy with the result against a much-fancied team that left stunned Ealing Trailfinders with their assured performance. Back RowFa'atiga Lemalu made the break that led to their first try. He fed to Left Wing Maliq Holden who was in at the Newlyn Gate Corner. Trailfinder Fly Half Craig Willis was required to spend ten minutes in the sin bin reflecting on his error. Three more tries followed so four tries were scored, giving the Pirates the bonus point. They were scored by:
Left Wing Maliq Holden (9 mins)
Fly Half Nicolas De Battista (12 mins)
Lock Brett Beukeboom (39 mins)
Outside Centre Callum Patterson (72 mins)
Free Press: 'A difficult day at the office' for Doncaster Knights despite beating Hartpury - link
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
