Whilst the tail end of Hurricane Bertha hasn’t quite broken the summer weather, it heralds that the end of summer and the start of the rugby season are just round the corner.
Preparations stepped up a gear last weekend with the first pre-season friendlies being played.
The Cornish Pirates continued their island hoping having enjoyed a week in the Scillies they moved on to the Channel Island of Guernsey to play their first pre-season fixture against the National 3 London & SE side.
Picture – Cornish Pirates on Tresco
Close ties have been built between Guernsey and the Pirates over the last couple of years with islanders Luke Jones and George Collenette both plying their trade in West Cornwall.
The match in Saint Peter Port was played over 3 x 30 minutes periods, with the Championship side running out winners 62-8.
Tom Kessell (2), Kieran Goss (2), Tyler Gendall, Darren Barry, Joe Atkinson, Alex Cheesman, Oliver Snook and an penalty-try award accounted for the five point scores, whilst Kieran Hallet (2) and Sam Marland (4) slotted the extras.
Guernsey Head Coach Jordan Reynolds said of the Pirates visit: “The experience our guys will get out of this week is something you could not put a price on, just being able to lean on them, engage with them and get ideas off them is going to be of massive benefit to us.”
Ian Davies, Cornish Pirates Director of Rugby was full of praise for the hospitality experienced during the trip and pleased with the final outcome.
“We have had a fantastic training week and have been impressed by the Guernsey club’s organisation and facilities.
The boys have enjoyed working with the community here and if the opportunity arose to visit again we’d welcome it with open arms.”
On Sunday afternoon the Cornish All Blacks travelled to Brickfields to take on Championship side Plymouth Albion in both sides first pre-season game.
The game was a good work out for both sides as they look to bed in their new signings. As you would expect, Albion had too much noose for the All Blacks winning 55-3. Both sides had a player red carded following a tiff between Albion player-coach Ruairi Cushion and the Cornish All Blacks’ former Plymouth player James Salter.
Sam Matavesi continues in his new role as hooker for Albion and got on the score sheet.
Launceston’s only points came via a Kieron Lewitt penalty during the first half.
Former St. Austell player Matt Shepherd made his debut at full back for the All Blacks though he moved to scrum-half later in the game.
Difficult for Launceston but they will look to step up when they face Newton Abbot on Friday evening under the Polson lights.
Congratulations to both Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickee on being included in Stuart Lancaster’s England squad training camp at Loughborough, which started yesterday for four days.
This week’s main pre-season fixtures;
Tues 12th Redruth v Exeter Academy 7.15pm
Thu 14th, Truro v Camborne 7.00 pm
Fri 15th Cornish All Blacks v Newton Abbot 7.45 pm
Sat 16th Cornish Pirates v Rosslyn Park 3.00 pm
Sat 16th St. Austell v Redruth 3.00pm
