A busy weekend of rugby live and on the box saw me take in Redruth v Dings Crusaders on Saturday, France v Australia in the evening (thank you ESPN, or should that be MERCI!), and on Armistice Day Cornish Pirates versus Rotherham Titans.
At some point I will catch up on England’s win over Fiji, congratulations to Josh Matavesi on getting his fourth cap for Fiji when he came on as a second half replacement, kicking the conversion for Fiji’s second try.
Also New Zealand’s win at Murrayfield.
Let’s start at the Mennaye, a lovely autumn day, however a little apprehension amongst the home fans as to how it would go, Pirates were down to the bare bones with their dual registered players involved in the LV= Cup (another unloved cup competition, but more of that later).
They needn’t have worried as the Cornish Pirates served up their best performance of the season with a 53-21 win.
Despite going behind to an early drop-goal from Titans’ fly-half Garry Law, Pirates responded with the boot of Aaron Penberthy and an opening try from the impressive Laurie McGlone.
Down to 14 men as lock, Toby Freeman (ex. Penryn) was sin-binned Titans conceeded further tries Pirates’ forwards Rob Elloway and Phil Burgess crossed before half-time as the home team turned around 22-9 up.
Soon after half-time Pirates had the bonus point in the bag as Burgess crossed for his second try. Burgess then turned to provider as his pass put Junior Fatialofa in at the Newlyn Gate corner. Lock Gary Johnson was next to get on the scoresheet as he was driven over.
Titans replacement prop Ed Stagg bagged a couple of tries for the Titans to make the score-line respectable, but Pirates finished with a late flourish as wing Ben Mercer sneaked in at the Old Western National Corner, then Burgess completed his hat-trick picking up a loose ball near half-way he showed his pace to score under the posts.
Pirates head coach Ian Davies was pleased with the result but still feels his side is very much work in progress. He said. “It was an eighty minute performance, it was good in parts and not so good in other parts! We will take fifty points, you can’t be too disappointed when you score that many points, but we are work in progress, we will go away and look at what went well and work on the areas that didn’t quite work so well today.
Rotherham’s Toby Freeman though happy to be back in Cornwall was less please with his side’s result on the day. “I am happy to be back in Cornwall, it’s been a very long time since I’ve been back, but it wasn’t the result we were looking for, fair play to the Pirates they executed well today wheras we didn’t. Their execution was spot on we were a little bit laboured in parts of our play .
Congratulations to Alan Paver, Phil Burgess and Gavin Cattle who have been selected to play in the RFU Championship XV next Saturday against New Zealand Maori at Doncaster’s Castle Park ground. Latest news is that Gavin Cattle has been selected as skipper of the Championship XV.
In National League 2 South, Redruth battled to a good win over Dings Crusaders 21-0. Winger Tom Notman and replacement scrum-half Greg Goodfellow scored the Reds’ tries with Paul Thirlby kicking a conversion and three penalties.
In Tribute Cornwall & Devon League Hayle travelled to Tiverton and drew 18-18, thanks to a late try from winger Rob Goodman.
It was a bit of a mixed bag in the quarter-finals of the Tribute Cornwall Cup. Sadly the ties between Camborne v Truro and Newquay Hornets v St. Ives resulted in walk-overs for the Cherry & Whites and the Hakes, never a satisfactory affair. However the two other ties played resulted in exciting games.
Having defeated Bude the previous week at home, Penryn travelled with high hopes to North Cornwall, however they found Bude a different proposition on their own patch.
Jake Seviour put the Borough 10-0 up with a try, conversion and penalty. Kyle Speare reduced the deficit with an un-converted try. Prop Jason Bolt scored a second try for Bude, which Dan Pearce converted for a 12-10 lead.
Seviour snatched back the lead for Borough with a second penalty, however Pearce kicked the winning penalty with just a couple of minutes remaining.
At Tregorrick it was a repeat of last season’s memorable final between St. Austell and Wadebridge Camels and once again Camels came out on top…just 26-23!
Matt Ballard scored first for the Camels, before Treve Murley levelled it for Saints with Matt Sheppard adding the conversion for a 7-5 lead.
Camels then surged ahead with James Grubb landing a penalty and then tries from Sam Stone and Dom Hawkey converted by Grubb for 20-7 advantage.
Back roared the Saints, Sean Haley scored a try, Sheppard kicked a penalty and Andy Ashwin dropped a goal to cut Camels advatage to 20-18.
Grubb kicked a couple of penalties to give Camels a bit of breathing space, but Saints scored another try by Sam Tank to set up a tense finish, Camels however hung on for the win.
In the Tribute Cornwall Clubs Cup there were wins for Veor 54-0 at Redruth Albany, Camborne School of Mines 67-12 against St. Day, Stithians 29-14 at Perranporth. The game between St. Agnes and Helston was abandoned with Aggy leading 8-0 after 15 minutes when the referee was injured.
Also on Sunday Cornwall U.20’s began their County Championship campaign with a defeat against Dorset & Wilts at North Dorset RFC. The score was 28-21 to the twin counties. Chris Instance, Duncan Hales and Kyle Moyle scored Cornwall’s tries with Moyle adding all three conversions.
Cornwall’s next match is on Sunday 2nd December at Redruth RFC when they take on Somerset, kick-off 2 pm.
For all those connected with Redruth RFC please make a note in your diary with regards to the notice below;
