Cut-throat Pirates put Carnegie to sword
CORNISH Pirates notched their first win of the season in a onesided affair at West Park RFC.
Hat-trick scoring centre Callum Patterson was one of several to stand out as the cohesive Pirates made their physical dominance count and put Carnegie to the sword a week afer the Yorkshiremen’s record 83-0 defeat away to Nottingam.
Pirates head coach Gavin Cattle said: “It was a good run out, credit to Leeds who stuck at it, they have a spirited bunch after only being together for a few weeks and caused us issues at times. It was pleasing to be dominant up front.
“We had a lot more handling errors in the first half than we would have hoped for, we need to look at that and execute better.
“But I’m pleased we upped the level in the second half– it’s our second game and I’m happy for everyone to get a run out and it puts us in a good position for selections as we move towards the league campaign after Nottingham next week.”
It took the Pirates barely two minutes to show their dominance. An early scrum saw openside Will Wilson break into Carnegie’s 22 and he won a penalty which Argentine fly-half Javier Rojas Alvarez slotted.
A lineout 15m out on the quarter of an hour mark set up Pirates first try and some slick handling from ex-Carnegie scrum-half JB Bruzulier saw the ball fly out to Patterson, who powered over two opposition players to score.
Bruzulier got on the end of a 60m sprint down the flank by wing Matt Evans to add a second try in the corner before Patterson got his second just before halftime, finishing off a training-ground move as the ball went wide quickly from a line-out with the winger finding space between two defenders.
Carnegie went a few metres short of Pirates’ tryline after the restart but were outmuscled from their own line-out. Loosehead Marlen Walker then finished a catch-and-drive for the bonus point try.
Despite being better disCOVENTRY
ciplined and putting several phases together, Carnegie could barely break into Pirates half and after blindside Jake Clemson drew in two defenders, Patterson got his hat-trick despite slipping on his run in, with Carnegie loosehead Gareth Smith sin-binned for trying to cynically obstruct the try.
Wilson and Pirates hooker Tom Channon rounded of the scoring while lock Fa-atiga Lemalu was sin-binned on the 70th minute for a technical foul.
Carnegie director of rugby Martyn Wood said: “Five weeks ago we didn’t have a single player and recruiting a squad in September is difficult as most people have contracts.
“It’s been tough but we have good players who are only going to get better.”