Pirates power through the Archers crossroads

A TRY after just two minutes from Tom Channon set the tone for a dominant performance from Cornish Pirates.

Pirates' joint head coach Gavin Cattle was pleased with his side’s desire to push for the bonus point which came in the final play from a driving maul.

Cattle said: “In what was at time a patchy game, we commendably stuck at it. It was said pre-match that this would be a bit of a crossroads for us if we are to compete going forward, so displaying good energy and keeping focused to ultimately secure five points was very pleasing. I am delighted for the boys.”

It was a sloppy 80 minutes of rugby from Nottingham. An early penalty was quickly taken by Pirates and hooker Channon crossed the line in the corner. Arwell Robson slotted the difficult conversion.

Four minutes later, Joe Elderkin had the chance to score a second for the visitors as he dummied a pass to his left, jinked past Jack Stapley, then eventually passed left but only into the hands of Nottingham flyhalf Sam Hollingsworth.

Pirates did find their second three minutes later they pushed a maul from a lineout on the 22, applied the pressure and captain John Stevens bundled over. Robson’s conversion made it 14-0.

The Archers began to see a bit of the ball from a very strong driving mau co-captain Jake Farnworth finished off. Sam Hollingsworth missed the conversion but struck a penalty on 20 minutes to narrow the deficit.

The visitors added three more points before halftime with a simple penalty from Robson in front of the sticks.

Nottingham started the second half poorly and Pirates stole a lineout close to the Archers’ try line which put Patrick Schickerling over, with Robson converting off the post.

Nottingham could not seem to keep hold of the ball and ill-discipline cost them again in front of the posts as they gave away a penalty which Robson chipped over.

The second half lacked action as neither team could create any meaningful opportunities until the final play when Pirates secured their bonus point from a driving maul – hooker James Benjamin the scorer.

Craig Hammond said: “We had some good opportunities up front and we had opportunities to take some more points. But the stuff we worked on in the week we didn’t execute, so we’ve got to learn from that and move on.”

REFEREE: Mike Hudson ATTENDANCE: 1,233