From the Cornish Pirates’ media officer Phil Westren
The songs says it’s a long way to Tipperary and on Friday
evening the Cornish Pirates will travel to the Irish county on what will be a
rare visit to the Emerald Isle. They will actually fly during the day from
Exeter to Dublin and then travel on to Clonmel RFC where Munster ‘A’ await in
the British & Irish Cup competition. The kick-off is at 7pm.
This will be a game between the first-ever finalists, it
remembered that the Pirates beat the might of Munster 23-14 at Camborne in May,
2010.
The Pirates have comfortably won their opening two games in
the Cup against Bristol Rugby and Plymouth Albion and presently top Pool One,
but they know a much sterner test awaits in Ireland against a side playing its
first game of the season in the competition.
There are several changes to the Cornish Pirates team from
the one that won well at home to Rotherham Titans on Sunday, including the
selection at full-back of Canadian international Matt Evans who is set to make
his debut for a side that will be skippered on the night by flanker Chris
Morgan.
Cornish Pirates: M. Evans, R. McAtee, D. Locke, S. Hill, D.
Doherty, R. Cook, T. Kessell, K. Marriott, C. Walker-Blair, C. Morgan (capt),
I. Nimmo, L. McGlone, C. Rimmer, D. Ward, R. Storer.
Replacements: T.Cowan-Dickie, R,. Elloway, P. Andrew, B. Cowan, P. Burgess, G. Cattle, R. Westren.
BBC Radio Cornwall have confirmed that they will be unable
to provide coverage of the match, which is a decision fully understood at this
particular time. However, the Cornish Pirates will provide regular updates from
Clonmel on both their Twitter and Facebook
For further information visit www.cornish-pirates.com
Note: Now in its third year of competition, the British & Irish Cuponce again involves 12 teams
from the English RFU Championship, six from the Welsh Principality Premiership,
Irish provinces Munster, Leinster and Ulster and three Scottish sides, Melrose,
Currie and Ayr.
The Cup has this season switched to a cross-pool format,
meaning each club gets two home games and two away games. As a result the teams
in Pool One will face Pool Two sides, Pool Three will take on Pool Four and
Pool Five tackle Pool Six, with the winners of each group and best two
runners-up progressing to the quarter-finals.
INFORMATION ON THE MUNSTER SIDE FOR TOMORROW FROM MUNSTER BRANCH SITE
Munster have named a strong side that includes internationals Mick O’Driscoll and Peter Stringer for the British & Irish Cup clash with Cornish Pirates at Clonmel RFC tomorrow evening (7pm).
And Munster will need all that experience against a visiting side who are enjoying a rich vein of form right now. They haven’t been beaten in five games since losing in Bedford in early October and are leading the Championship by a point over Bristol.
Last time out they beat the Andre Bester coached Rotherham Titans 30-13 and 15 of that match day squad will be on duty tomorrow night in Clonmel.
Munster: Luke O’Dea; Ronan O’Mahony, Tom Gleeson, JJ Hanrahan, Simon Zebo; Scott Deasy, Peter Stringer; Dave Kilcoyne, Sean Henry, Stephen Archer; Mick O’Driscoll, Ian Nagle; Billy Holland, Tommy O’Donnell, Paddy Butler.
Replacements: Duncan Casey, John Ryan, Dave Foley, Brian O’Hara, Duncan Williams, Darren Moroney (UL Bohs), Corey Hircock.
