BRITISH & IRISH CUP – POOL A

CORNISH PIRATES 54 – 31 CURRIE

Despite his side’s solid start to the defence of their British & Irish Cup Pirates’ High Performance Manager Chris Stirling was measured in his enthusiasm for his side’s performance “It was sketchy it was up and down, when we needed to we really lifted it and played our game and played some really good stuff but in between we slumped and were pretty average to be perfectly honest. We had opportunities we produced some good tries and then were guilty of going to sleep and the opposition all credit to them came here with an attitude of keeping the ball in hand, I don’t think they kicked much all afternoon from hand, and played with some good width and found lots of holes.

Stirling was again concerned about the penalty count against his side “I’ll have to look at the DVD of the game as it’s not always easy to see what’s happening from our position behind the posts, we got pinged for off-side and at the break-down and at times our discipline probably hurt us.

“Defensively we were poor, we were lazy and slow to get into position, if your not in position early you can’t have vision up the field and identify threats and move up to counter them, we created problems for ourselves and the opposition were good enough to take them.

Despite the shortcomings identified by Stirling, which he will look to address during the week he was pleased with his side scoring eight good tries “There were some satisfying aspects of the game there were some high points, but we need to eradicate the errors.

Stirling acknowledged that Currie had played their part in an entertaining game, “They came with the right attitude and I commend them on that, they backed themselves and kept the ball in hand going through multiple phases. If Currie continue to play that way then on their own patch they will cause some teams from the Championship problems.

Stirling was also pleased with prop James Currie’s performance “He went well, I think all the guys who started who hadn’t had a lot of rugby went well, James scrummed hard and worked well, he’s a good round the field player.

Looking ahead to Wednesday’s evening match against Birmingham & Solihull (subject to ground conditions in Birmingham) “I am looking forward to that game back into the Championship, the Bees are very much like today’s opponents Currie in the style they play, so we will be working on defence prior to the game. Then next weekend it’s back to the Cup with Leinster here next Sunday, they will be pretty abrasive and they will back themselves. It’s two to qualify from each group this season but the bonus for the group winners is that they will have a home quarter-final against a runner-up from one of the other pools”.

Currie’s head coach Ally Donaldson though disappointed with the result was nevertheless pleased with his side’s performance “We haven’t played in three weeks neither have we been able to train outside for two weeks until last night, we are disappointed with the final score, in the circumstances we were stepping up a level today, we are pleased with the performance but disappointed with the margin of the final score-line.

“We had a couple of chances to get within a score of the Pirates, but they are a quality side and were able to step up a gear when required, they are a very clinical team, it’s a step up in standard from the Scottish Premiership, hopefully we can learn from that and improve, we’ve got Worcester next Friday night up at Currie if we learn some lessons from today then hopefully we can put together another performance and get a better result.” On this performance Currie will certainly give the Warriors a tough game on home soil.

Donaldson was happy with his backs – who despite being shorn of a couple of regulars out with the Scotland 7’s side in George – showed some good flair against the Pirates, “Hopefully (Dougie Fife and James Johnson) will be back for next week we have some good youngsters coming through players like full back Tom Brown and fly-half Matt Scott have played for Scotland U.20’s others have played for the Scottish Clubs International side.

Despite having to concede ground advantage to get the game played Donaldson was pleased to get a game under his side’s belt “Without a doubt it’s been a great experience for our boys coming down here to play, we see the British & Irish Cup as a development tool for us to improve individually and collectively especially our young boys, Fergus Scott who came on as replacement hooker has only just turned 18 and this will stand him in good stead”.

BRITISH & IRISH CUP POOL A MATCH

By Bill Hooper, at the Mennaye Field, Penzance

The Cornish Pirates got their defence of the British and Irish Cup off to a winning start with a 54-31 win over Scottish Premiership side Currie in a thoroughly entertaining Pool A match at the Mennaye on Saturday afternoon. The game originally scheduled to be played at Currie’s Malleny Park was switched to the Mennaye during mid-week when it became clear that the Scottish venue would be unfit to play on due to the heavy snow in Midlothian.

It was a game that will have left both the Pirates’ high performance director Chris Stirling and Currie’s head coach Ally Donaldson frustrated by their respective side’s defensive performances, not many side’s come to the Mennaye and score 31 points and in Currie’s case it was the more remarkable – in that they had to endure a very early start to fly down Saturday morning from snowbound Edinburgh and that they had played no rugby in three weeks – since their Scottish Premiership win over Melrose on November 20th!

The Pirates began the match the stronger, fly-half Rob Cook spurned an early penalty chance before supplying the scoring pass for winger Wes Davies’ try after just 6 minutes the fly-half’s conversion giving the Pirates just the start they looked for.

From the re-start the Pirates were guilty of giving away a penalty to allow Currie’s New Zealand centre, normally a full-back, Hayden Abercrombie the chance to immediately pull three points back.

Cook and Abercrombie then swapped penalties as both sides fell foul of referee Luke Pearce. The Cornish Pirates upped the tempo to score a second try on 15 minutes with hooker Rob Elloway burrowing over in the clubhouse corner following some good work from Rhodri McAtee and man-of-the-match Mike Myerscough.

Currie continued to look dangerous in the backs with half-backs Richard Snedden and Matt Scott proving a handful, whilst out wide the back three of Andy Turnbull, Alex Dunbar and Tom Brown showed plenty of renowned Scottish pace.

A third penalty success for Abercrombie saw his side chip away at the Pirates’ lead before the homeside lit up the dank afternoon with a sublime third try on 25 minutes, which saw a break by Cook finished off by the dynamic blond duo in the Pirates’ mid-field with Drew Locke turning provider for Matt Hopper to score again towards the clubhouse corner.

The game continued to ebb and flow as Currie hit back with a fine try of their own following a fine move that saw lock Ryan Wilson get over in the old Western National Corner.

Cook kicked a second penalty to give the Pirates a 23-14 lead at half-time.

The second half was barely a minute old when the Pirates had scored their fourth try, a burst from mid-field by scrum-half James Doherty was followed by a chip forward into the 22, the wicked bounce eluded the Currie cover allowing McAtee to collect and run in, Cook’s indifferent kicking continued as the conversion went wide.

Back came Currie with Brown putting in a fine run to set up Scott for their second try with Abercrombie adding the conversion for 28-21.

The Pirates looked to the bench to bring on some fresh legs amongst the replacements Ben Gulliver back from his loan spell at Leicester Tigers.

The Cornish Pirates pulled away again with McAtee scoring his second try of the afternoon with Locke again turning provider.
Abercrombie landed a fourth penalty to bring his side back to 35-24 to harbour hopes of at least getting some reward for their long trip to Cornwall.
The Pirates had enough to keep their visitors at bay with a sixth try scored by Jonny Bentley as they game moved towards the final quarter.

A tap and go by Currie saw the quicksilver Brown rewarded with a try as the full back cut back to score a fine try near the posts which Abercrombie converted for 40-31, but that was as close as the visitors were to get as the Pirates finished off with two more tries, a cross-field kick from Bentley was gathered by Davies who put in full back Grant Pointer for the Pirates’ seventh try in the old Western National Corner with Bentley adding the conversion, the Kiwi was on target again as he added the extras to his countryman Blair Cowan’s try following a big drive by the forwards.

The good sized crowd showed their appreciation to both sides for a real Christmas cracker of a game.

Cornish Pirates 54 pts
Tries – Davies, Elloway, Hopper, McAtee (2), Bentley, Pointer, Cowan, Conversions – Cook (2), Bentley (2), Penalties – Cook (2)

Currie 31 pts
Tries – Wilson, M Scott, Brown, Conversions- Abercrombie (2), Penalties – Abercrombie (4)

Cornish Pirates: G Pointer, W Davies, M Hopper, D Locke (S Winn 59), R McAtee, R Cook (J Bentley 59), J Doherty; P Andrew (C Rimmer 69), R Elloway (T Cowan-Dickie 66 R Elloway 72), J Currie (A Paver 51), I Nimmo (B Gulliver 51), M Myerscough, K Marriott (capt) (C Morgan 61), T Holmes, B Cowen

Currie: T Brown, A Dunbar, H Abercrombie, A MacMahon (A Binikos 39) A Turnbull, M Scott (J Smith 64), R Snedden (A Whitingham 77); J Cox (R Merriles 51), S Simonsen (F Scott 51), A Hamilton, R Wilson, G Temple (A Adam 30-31) (A Best 76), M Cairns (capt), M Entwhistle, R Weston

Referee: Mr Luke Pearce (RFU)

Pirates-man-of-the-match: Mike Myerscough

Currie V The Pirates On Saturday – NOW AT PENZANCE
December 11th
Moved To The Mennaye Field Penzance
Kick Off 2pm

This is an ALL PAY GAME

No Advance tickets for This Match

Tickets £10 Adults/Concessions
Includes entry to the covered stands on a first come first served basis.
Accompanied children under 16 admitted free.

The clubhouse and Travis Perkins marquee will be open to all before, during and after the game, refreshments including’ Fesh Baked’ Hot Warren’s Pasties will be on sale.

The Match Will Not Be Shown On Pirates TV

Get behind the Pirates as they start the defence of their British & Irish Cup won so thrillingly at Camborne last May against Munster.

“The best set-piece performance of the season” was how Cornish Pirates High Performance Director Chris Stirling summed up his side’s performance against old foes Bristol at the Mennaye on a bitterly cold December afternoon.

Leading 9-6 thanks to three Rob Cook penalties against two from Bristol’s Adrian Jarvis, the Pirates made sure of the win and denied Bristol any solace by way of a losing bonus point with beautifully crafted try some seven minutes into time added on by referee Rob Debney. Fly-half Jonny Bentley’s grubber kick to the Bristol line was seized upon by replacement centre Drew Locke, Cook’s conversion giving the Pirates a vital 16-6 win to put them third in the Championship table.

It was a titanic struggle between both sets of forwards with a lot going on in the middle of it all, flanker Chris Morgan got the man-of-the-match award against his old club, fellow flanker Phil Burgess got through a lot of work himself, this young man is steadily making a name for himself with each peformance since stepping up from National 2 North side Loughborough Students this season.

So this weekend, weather permitting, the Pirates will head North across the northern english border to face Scottish Premier League side Currie in Balerno just west of Edinburgh as they start the defence of their British & Irish Cup so thrillingly won at Camborne last season against Munster.

CORNISHMAN Phil Vickery today called time on his rugby playing career which saw him lift the Rugby World Cup in 2003 in Australia.

Seelink from the guardian for full report. What a fine ambassador for Cornwall Phil has been over the years, a truly remarkable player. Phil you’ll be missed.

I finally had the chance to pop down to the Mennaye on Sunday to see the Cornish Pirates in action against Rotherham Titans.

I am not going to spend too much time talking about the game itself – you can read the excellent reports by Woll on the Pirates website or the match report in today’s Western Morning News by Bill Sobey.But if you haven’t managed to venture down west yet then I really do recommend you make an effort one Sunday soon. On a beautiful sunny autumnal afternoon with virtually clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind; there aren’t many better places in Cornwall to watch rugby than the Mennaye. My preferred vantage point is down at the Newlyn End; you get a great view and can certainly appreciate the running angles and set moves from the players. However, the rest of the ground has been well spruced up with plenty of seating installed at the Penzance end as well as uncovered and covered seating opposite the main stand.

Ground tickets are £15 on the day of the match, but don’t forget if you buy them early from Warrens Bakers for £13 or direct from the club again at £13.

Sunday’s game against Rotherham, which the Pirates won 40-15, had seven great tries with the Pirates bagging five. Full-back Rob Cook – who just seems to get better and better each time I see him play – amassed twenty five points in an impressive scoring spree, two tries, three conversions, two penalties and a drop-goal. Wingers Rhodri McAtee and Wes Davies were industrious, along with centres Steve Winn and Matt Hopper, half-backs Jonny Bentley and skipper Gavin Cattle buzzed around, whilst in the pack, flanker Phil Burgess caught the eye with hooker Dave Ward and lock Laurie McGlone rampant.

After the match Pirates High Performance Director Chris Stirling was happy with the result, although parts of the performance will be looked at during the week. “You’ve got to be patient and build phases and when we did we created space and we probably could have scored another four or five tries, however Stirling conceded that they still have much to do with re-starts “We are working on it but it’s probably the one area of our game that we haven’t made forward progress, we will continue to work on that aspect and look to improve”.

But overall Stirling was happy with his side’s overall performance “Our game isn’t really centred on hammering away at the breakdowns we did get sucked into it a little bit (early on) maybe with hindsight wrong options, but if we’d scored it wouldn’t have been, I think we mixed our game up really well today we kicked, kept it close and drove a few times, we sucked them in and created some space, which we attacked through, then we weren’t afraid either to go from off the top and out to the mid-field and then quickly move the ball from there, From the balance of tight play and wider expanse we pretty much got it right today”.

Following Redruth’s first league win of the season last Saturday against Rosslyn Park, more good news for the Reds as two of their players picked up the Trelawny’s Army Cornwall Senior and U.20 Player of the Year Awards at the clubs AGM held at the St. Austell Brewrey Visitor Centre last evening.

BBC Radio Cornwall’s sports presenter Ross Ellis was on hand to make the awards, whilst Club President John Treglown of St. Austell Brewery was on hand to make a presentation to both players of Tribute beer, which of course sponsors the regional leagues in the south west.

The Cornwall Senior Player award the Bill Osborne Memorial Shield went to No.8 Mark Bright, well-deserved recognition for Brighty’s fine performances in a Cornwall shirt in a testing 2010 County Championship campaign during which he scored tries (5) in all Cornwall’s matches. It wasn’t just his try-scoring exploits that won him the award but his fine all-round displays all over the pitch which showed him to be Cornwall’s stand out player.

Runner-up in the poll, and a player who deserves a special mention, Ian Morgan, who’s goal kicking proved vital during Cornwall’s campaign. Ian has now retired from playing to concentrate on his coaching with St. Ives RFC.

The Tony Mead Memorial Shield for the Cornwall U.20 Player of the Year went to Adam Lewarne, the young second row forward made his mark during a challenging U.20 County Championship campaign for Cornwall, similar to the seniors they won just one of their group matches. Adam also went on to gain his full county cap playing against Devon in this year’s Tamar Cup at St. Ives. He is tipped for higher honours in the game.

Both players were delighted with their awards, and they both expressed their pride and passion in wearing the Cornwall shirt.

Trailing 24-23 a dramatic drop-goal from Aaron Penberthy with the final kick of the match gave Redruth a deserved first win in National League 1 this season, reports Bill Hooper from the Recreation Ground.

It looked like the Reds were heading for another defeat as Rosslyn Park’s centre Chris Lewis scored his side’s third try on 79 minutes to take a one point lead with time almost up. Redruth to their great credit stormed straight back at their visitors with the forwards eventually working the chance for Penberthy’s late strike, which the home crowd greeted with joy and relief!

Both sides traded early penalties from Penberthy and Richard Davies for Rosslyn Park, before the first try of the game went to Redruth.
Full-back Jack Nowell enhanced his growing reputation with strong run out of defence before putting in a fine kick towards Hell Fire Corner behind the visitors defence. Lewis Vinnicombe chased well to force an error from the defender, which allowed Nowell to finish off the move he started.

Rosslyn Park then capitalised on a Redruth error to draw level with a try from full-back Olly Lindsay-Hague.

A tight struggle tipped back in the Reds’ favour with a second try scored by No. 8 Mark Bright, with Penberthy adding the extras.

Davies pegged back three points with a second penalty before half-time to leave the Reds 15-11 up.

At the beginning of the second half Rosslyn Park put Redruth under tremendous pressure with Lindsay-Hague grabbing his second try of the match.

A second penalty from Penberthy re-gained his side the lead, which they extended when Bright stormed in for his second try following good work from Nathan Pedley and hooker Matt Gidlow for a 23-16 advantage after 64 minutes.

Redruth looked for the try-scoring bonus point, however Davies with his third penalty and Lewis’ try looked to have snatched the spoils for the visitors, until Penberthy’s last gasp strike.

Redruth 26 pts
Tries – Nowell, Bright (2), Conversion – Penberthy, Penalties – Penberthy (2), Drop-Goal – Penberthy

Rosslyn Park 24 pts
Tries – Lindsay-Hague (2), Lewis, Penalties – Davies (3)

The Cornish All Blacks picked up a losing bonus point in their defeat at Stourbridge 17-10. Despite scoring a try from centre Ryan Western with Mal Roberts adding a conversion and a penalty, the All Blacks were undone by two late tries, which swung the game in the home side’s favour.

NO – I didn’t travel up to Bristol on Sunday to watch the Cornish Pirates go down to their first defeat of the season by 21-7. Instead I took the much shorter trip (for me) to watch a Cornish Derby in Western Counties West between PENRYN & TRURO.

The old ground evokes many happy memories stretching back to the early seventies when Penryn were the force in Cornwall and Exeter didn’t fancy their chances against the Borough either!

The game that stands out is that famous RFU Knock Out Cup Quarter-Final tie played between Penryn and mighty Coventry on 4th March 1972. Hard to belive that some 5,000 squeezed into the famous old ground. “One of the most partisan crowds I have experienced” remarked Coventry’s England International…….David Duckham. Although Penryn lost the match 28-4 on a pitch that resembled a mud-bath – I still have the mud-splattered program with David Duckham’s autograph on it – I remember well standing on the banking, which would be just behind the stand a Penryn on the old configeration of the pitch, with showers of mud and beer cans raining down mostly in the direction of a Cornishman, Barry Ninnes from St. Ives who was playing for Coventry and had changed county allegence from Cornwall to Warwickshire. It hadn’t gone down well locally!

So much for memory lane, back to the present and a win for the Borough as they defeated Truro 18-12. A close game with not much to seperate the sides, though Adryan Winnan’s sublime cross-field kick created the opening try for winger Darren Pellow, fellow winger Dan Booth got the other try with the boot of Navy skipper Dave Pascoe kicking the points. Karl Martin kicked four penalties for Truro, for whom wingers Luke Trescothick and Mark Lea stood out as did Richard Tucker in the pack.

The win keeps Penryn up near the top of Tribute Western Counties West with fellow un-beaten side Wellington, who were promtied from the Cornwall & Devon League last season.

Elsewhere in the league Newquay Hornets lost heavily at home 55-0 to leaders Wellington, whilst Bude lost an entertaining game at Exeter Saracens 58-32.

In the Tribute Cornwall & Devon League, St. Austell lost their un-beaten record as they slipped up at home to Bideford 14-10. Sam Tank getting both Saints tries.

Falmouth had another good win this time against Crediton 33-15 at the Rec. Falmouth’s five tries came from Clayton Meeks (2), Phil Wells, Ashley Searle and Josh Chambers, with Matt Horton kicking four conversions. Saltash beat Stithians 39-19 at Moorlands Morton and Skinnard both grabbed a brace with Arndell and Hurrell also crossing. Ashwin, Keay and Creeden scored tries for Stithians. Hayle won 41-7 at Philleigh against Roseland. Tom Outram scord a couple of tries in the Lions six-try win. Liskeard & Looe had a thumping win at Lux Park against Torrington 72-3.

In National League 1, the Cornish All Blacks drew 24-24 with Tynedale at Polson Bridge, both sides scored three tries with Lanson’s tries comming from a penalty-try and a brace for centre Ryan Westren who is showing great form at present.

Redruth lost for the fourth time this season going down 34-15 at London Scottish. Nic Simmons and Steve Kenward got the Reds’ tries with Aaron Penberthy adding a conversion and a penalty.

Up in London London Cornish maintained their fine start to the season with a 15-10 win over Twickenham in London 2 SW

In Tribute South West 1 West, Camborne won the derby at St. Ives 23-18, whilst Wadebridge Camels won at Ivybridge 30-13.

Three weeks into the league season, four if you follow the Cornish Pirates in the Championship, it’s already been eventful!
Our leading club side the Cornish Pirates have made a useful start to their Championship campaign with three wins and a draw. The three wins have all come from home wins back at the Mennaye the latest a 32-15 win over Birmingham & Solihull. However it wasn’t all plain sailing as the Pirates found themselves trailing 15-7 until the 65th minute when Tom Luke added a second try to Tyrone Holmes first half score. Rob Cook’s second conversion brought them back to within a point, before the full-back kicked two penalties to ease his side back into the lead.

Two late tries for the Pirates sealed the win and the bonus point with Rhodri McAtee, the man for all seasons, getting the first and centre Nick Jackson the second. Cook added a conversion to complete the scoring.

There has been some discussion in the press in recent weeks about the Stadium for Cornwall project with one or two unhelpful comments about this vital project for Cornwall being made by people who really should know better.

It’s disappointing to think that there are still some people with a voice on Cornwall Council who fail to grasp the impact this major project will have for the benefit of Cornwall. One can hope that their eyes can be opened sooner rather than later. Of course when the time comes they will have to answer their actions to their electorate when/if they wish to stand for re-election!