Cornish Pirates’ defiant stand shows up case for Premiership ring-fencing
The Mennaye Field in Penzance has staged some memorable moments of defiance over the years.
In June 1944, General Dwight D Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, along with General George Patton, stood on the bank overlooking the ground to take the salute from soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 35th Division as they marched across the pitch before leaving for the D-day landings in Normandy.
And it was on the same patch of land that Cornish Pirates made their own defiant stand on Saturday. Their victory over Saracens in the opening round of the Championship was not just one of English rugby’s greatest modern-day upsets, but it also sent ripples through the game’s establishment.
It is less than a month since the Rugby Football Union council voted to agree to Premiership Rugby’s request to scrap relegation this season ahead of talks to change the structure that may also include a moratorium on promotion and relegation for three or four more years.
Ring-fencing would effectively end the Pirates dream of forcing their way onto English rugby’s top table as their Devonian neighbours Exeter Chiefs managed 10 years ago.
Yet, just as they were reaching a pivotal moment in their Premiership ambitions, including the attempt to build a £23million “Stadium for Cornwall” project at Langarth near Truro, the impact of the pandemic has hit the club hard.
That is why the victory over Saracens, who won four Premiership titles and three Heineken Champions Cups in five seasons before being relegated last year for salary-cap breaches, represented so much more than just the result.
The brilliant coaching double act of Alan Paver and Gavin Cattle have crafted a side of unlikely heroes who were worthy winners against a Saracens team who, while shorn of their England players, still managed to field a World Cup winner, a British and Irish Lion and a players with a combined total of 165 Test caps.
That the Pirates had only one game since last March as preparation and were missing several of their front-line players made their performance even more special.
A late try by Rhodri Davies sealed the famous win, after Luke Scully’s second penalty had edged them into an 18-17 lead. Saracens scored tries by Sean Maitland, Alex Lewington and Jackson Wray but lacked any control or the platform from which to break clear of their opponents, who stayed in the fight with tries by Tom Duncan and Dan Frost.
If ever there was a performance to make the ring-fencers think again, this was it.
“People have got to respect what the Championship’s about,” said Paver, whose nickname of “the scrum doctor” was never more meaningful on Saturday as the Pirates surprisingly were able to dominate the set-piece, winning eight scrum penalties.
“We’ve got to keep it going and there’s got to be investment in it. Today just shows that we can do it, that we are valuable to rugby. I am so pleased for the lads.”
While the passion still burns as brightly as this, their defiant dream will live on.